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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be withdrawn, there was a strong possibility that it would have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
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:
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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.
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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.
This is our chance to pass the collective bargaining
bill!!! The National Legislative Office will be sending out
additional LEGISLATIVE ALERTS as necessary, but we need all
FOP members to CONTACT THEIR SENATORS IN THEIR WASHINGTON,
D.C. OFFICE NOW AND ASK THEM TO VOTE IN FAVOR OF S.
Amdt. 3830 to the Farm Bill!!!
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