LEGISLATIVE ALERT ON COLLECTIVE BARGAINING - UPDATE
On Friday, December 7, 2007, Senators Judd Gregg (R-NH), Edward Kennedy
(D-MA) and Tom Harkin (D-IA) submitted the Public Safety Employer-Employee
Cooperation Act (S. 2123) as an amendment to the Farm, Nutrition, and Bioenergy
Act of 2007, H.R. 2419. The amendment, S.Amdt.3830, was one of only forty
amendments – out of hundreds offered – that the Senate leadership allowed to be
considered. Senators Gregg, Kennedy and Harkin felt strongly that the Collective
Bargaining bill had a good chance of passing the Senate as part of the Farm
bill.
Members of the FOP spent the next week lobbying Senators to ensure that we had
the 60 votes necessary to pass the amendment when it was scheduled to come up
for a vote on the morning of Friday, December 14. We were even able to arrange
for all of the Senate Democratic Presidential Candidates (Senators Joseph R.
Biden, Jr., Hillary Rodham Clinton, Barack Obama, and Christopher Dodd) to fly
back Thursday night after their debate in Iowa in order to vote Friday morning
in favor of the amendment.
However, the night before the scheduled vote, Senators Gregg, Kennedy and Harkin
were forced to withdraw their Public Safety Collective Bargaining amendment.
Despite all of FOP’s efforts and overwhelming support for the amendment, Senator
Jim DeMint (R-SC) did everything in his power to ensure that it did not pass.
Senator DeMint offered second degree amendments that would have significantly
weakened our amendment and he threatened to filibuster it, making a clean
passage of the Collective Bargaining amendment impossible.
While it is unfortunate that we did not get the chance to have S.Amdt.3830 voted
on, we did discover that the Public Safety Employer-Employee Cooperation Act has
widespread, bipartisan support in the Senate. We feel that if Senator DeMint had
not forced it to be withdrawn, there was a strong possibility that it would have
passed.
The FOP played a large role in the passage of the Public Safety
Employer-Employee Cooperation Act, H.R. 980, in the House of Representatives on
July 17, 2007. The fight to pass the collective bargaining bill in the Senate is
now more focused and the FOP is putting all of its efforts into ensuring its
passage. Next year is a new Congressional session and we are optimistic that we
can build on our broad bipartisan support and move the bill successfully in
2008.
LEGISLATIVE ALERT ON COLLECTIVE BARGAINING
Dole, Elizabeth- (R - NC)
555 DIRKSEN SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
(202) 224-6342
E-MAIL
Burr, Richard- (R - NC)
217 RUSSELL SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
(202) 224-3154
E-MAIL
LEGISLATIVE ALERT:
There has been a change in the sponsor and amendment of our collective
bargaining bill. The new amendment is S. Amdt. 3830 and it will be offered to
the Farm Bill (H.R. 2419) this week!!!
The amendment (S. Amdt. 3830) is identical to the Senate version of the
collective bargaining bill and it will be offered by Senators Tom Harkin (D-IA),
Judd Gregg (R-NH), and Edward M. Kennedy (D-MA).
CALL FOR IMMEDIATE ACTION:
All FOP members should call their Senators at their Washington offices (or
through the U.S. Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121) and urge them to vote in
favor of the Harkin-Gregg-Kennedy Amendment (S. Amdt. 3830) to the Farm bill!!!
The organizations who opposes the bill are already hard at
work using their phone banks to tell their Senators to vote against the
amendment. We NEED to counteract this--call your Senators today!!!
When making contact with your Senators, use the following talking points to
explain why this legislation is so important to law enforcement officers:
- What the bill does: The legislation recognizes the right of public safety employees to form and join a labor organization and to bargain over hours, wages, and the terms and conditions of employment. The specifically prohibits lockouts and strikes, and also protects State laws--including right-to-work laws--that provide equal or greater collective bargaining rights than those outlined in the bill.
- The bill passed the House by a wide margin earlier this year and has bipartisan support in the Senate. In July 2007, the U.S. House of Representatives considered and passed a nearly identical measure, H.R. 980, the "Public Employer-Employee Cooperation Act," under a suspension of the rules on a 314-97 vote. The Senate version of the bill, S. 2123, which is identical to the amendment being offered to the Farm bill, has twenty-six (26) cosponsors.
If any of the Senator's staff that you speak with have additional questions about the legislation, tell them to contact Tim Richardson at in the FOP's National Legislative Office at 202-547-8189.