Collective Bargaining by Government Workers

The Public Employee

Harry Kershen

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN: 9780895030320
• eBook ISBN: 9781351845496
• Topic: Psychology
• Subtopic: Mental Health in Psychology
• Index: Psychology

The chapters in this anthology deal with many of these all-encompassing constraints and how the various participants seek to deal with them. Model agreements, negotiating levers, the balance of power between managers and government employees, contracting-out versus producing in-house, the impact of bargaining unit structure on productivity, the relationship of municipal budget making to collective bargaining, public employee union growth and organizing trends, and many other topics are dealt with in this volume. These issues are discussed in the context of several specific types of public employees such as: municipal protection employees, mass transit workers, health professionals in relation to government service, and, the armed forces and civilian federal employees.

PART I

MUNICIPAL PROTECTION EMPLOYEES: ORGANIZATIONS, NEGOTIATIONS AND IMPLICATIONS

Police, fire, and courthouse employees share a commonality of interest in the eye of the public–they are involved in protection of people and property. Police and fire fighters are directly involved while courthouse workers are peripheral yet integral participants. The chapters in this part reflect the perceived concerns of this essential segment of the public labor force. Covered are types of organizations available to these groups. Also discussed are contract clauses that protect management rights, juxtaposed against a chapter describing police supervisors’ ambiguity toward their managerial role.

The “hot potato” of pay parity between police and fire fighters is analyzed in depth, leading to a discussion of how fire fighters prefer to resolve impasses during negotiations.

The authors in this part generally maintain an objective distance from their subjects, yet convey an empathy for the specialized problems and situations of workers who daily face life-threatening dangers on behalf of their ultimate employers–the public.

CHAPTER 1

A Typology of Police Collective Bargaining Employee Organizations

CHARLES R. SWANSON, JR.

It may fairly be said upon examing personnel administration over the past quarter of a century that all other events are in the penumbra of public sector unionism. The literature in the field is extensive, particularly that relating to the police due to the perceived urgency of maintaining the delivery of their services. A great deal of variety exists, both by title and operation, in police employee organizations. The literature includes references to activity on the police front by such groups as the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), the California Alliance of Police Associations, the Assembly of Government Employees, the Buffalo Silver Shield Club, the Fraternal Order of Police, the Wisconsin Professional Policemen’s Association and the Service Employees International Union. Understanding is enhanced by order. The purpose here is to provide a typology of police employee organizations so that from the presently existing diversity significant relationships may be seen and made more readily understandable.

While there is considerable variation among the employee organizations to which police officers belong for the purpose of collective bargaining, they may be placed into one of three broad categories: (1) those whose parent is an industrial union, (2) independent government employee associations, and (3) independent police associations.

TYPE I: THE INDUSTRIAL UNION AS PARENT

AFSCME – The largest all-public employee organization with an industrial union as parent is AFSCME, which excludes private sector employees. Eligible too for AFSCME membership are “employees of quasipublic, nonprofit or tax-exempt agencies of a public, charitable, educational or civic nature [1]. AFSCME, which evolved from the Wisconsin State Administrative Association, established in 1932, operated briefly as a relatively autonomous unit under the American Federation of Government Employees, an American Federation of Labor affiliate and finally was granted its own international AFL charter in 1936 [2]. AFSCME represents 9,000 sub-federal level police officers primarily in Connecticut, Maryland, and Michigan, and is an active, often militant union; while police members favor having their own locals, the union has no plans to create them at this time [3].

AFGE – The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), an AFL-CIO organization, is AFSCME’s counterpart in the federal government [4]. AFGE also operates in the District of Columbia. By executive order, National Security Agency, Federal Bureau of Investigation, and Central Intelligence Agency employees do not have the collective bargaining rights granted other federal employees by Executive Orders 10988 and 11491 as amended by E.O. 11616 and E.O. 11838. The reason for the exclusion of these agencies is their sensitive national security role. Executive Order 11636 does, however, permit collective bargaining in one unit for three borderline organizations: the Agency for Internal Development, the Foreign Service, and the United States Information Agency. Founded in 1932, AFGE presently represents a variety of personnel including those with the Drug Enforcement Administration, the National Park Service, the Border Patrol and protective officers with the General Services Administration. Federal law enforcement officers are in bargaining units separated by agency, but include nonenforcement personnel. For example, deputy United States federal marshalls are organized into one bargaining unit worldwide, but the unit also includes clerical staff. An exception to this is guards with the Smithsonian Institution, who are in a bargaining unit with interagency membership. AFGE also represents guards in the Federal Bureau of Prisons. Overall their representation of criminal justice personnel in the federal government and the District of Columbia is estimated at 45,000 persons.

NUPO and SEIU – The National Union of Police Officers (NUPO) was founded in 1969 by John Cassesse, former president of the New York City Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association [5]. NUPO was originally formed as the International Brotherhood of Police Officers, but was forced to change its designation as an organization by that name already existed. Cassesse intended NUPO to become literally the national police union. Failing to obtain an AFL-CIO charter from George Meaney, Cassesse affiliated with the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) in 1972. NUPO’s strength is currently estimated at 3,000 members, down from 10,000 in 1969 [3]. Knowledgeable observers characterize NUPO as all but defunct.

Approximately one-third of SEIU’s membership is from the public sector [6]. Separate from NUPO, SEIU has about 30 autonomous police locals with some 4,000 officers in Louisiana, Michigan, Missouri, South Carolina and the Virgin Islands. All of the SEIU police locals are in small jurisdictions. Spero and Capozzola feel that the SEIU intends to make itself a replica of AFSCME [2, p. 22]. It is apparent that there is jurisdictional conflict between AFSCME and SEIU. A SEIU representative reports that the question of jurisdiction is presently being guided by Article 20 of the AFL-CIO constitution, which permits competition between AFL-CIO unions provided that they do not do anything that brings disrepute on the AFL-CIO, nor can they “raid” the other union’s membership.

IBT – The International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Warehousemen and Helpers of America (IBT or Teamsters) has had an interest in organizing police officers since 1958 [7]. They currently claim to represent about 16,000 police officers either in all public employee locals or among the 200 contracts they have with bargaining units in police departments that are members of mixed locals, i.e., locals with a combination of private and public sector employees. Teamster Public Employees Local 320 of the State of Minnesota includes state, county, and municipal employees, as does Local 214, state, county, and municipal workers of the State of Michigan. In general, the Teamsters have had the greatest success in organizing police officers in suburban, rural, and western areas of the country, most notably in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin, South Dakota, and California. It appears that the mood of police officers affiliated with the Teamsters is often militant, perhaps selecting the IBT because of its aggressiveness in seeking benefits.

TYPE II: INDEPENDENT GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEE ASSOCIATIONS

NAGE – The predecessor to the National Association of Government Employees (NAGE) was the Federal Employees Veterans Association (FEVA) which was founded in 1950 [8]. NAGE, organized in 1961, has a police division, the International Brotherhood of Police Officers (IBPO). IBPO had its beginnings in 1964 in Rhode Island, affiliating with NAGE in 1970. Some 30,000 police officers in more than 500 locals are represented by IBPO, including those in Washington, D.C., Santa Barbara, Austin, Hartford, St. Petersburg, and Salt Lake City police departments and the Vermont State Police. In general, IBPO’s strength is concentrated in New England.

AGE – It is difficult to determine the extent of police membership in the Assembly of Government Employees (AGE) [9]. Founded in 1952, AGE presently has 47 affiliates and more than 700,000 members. AGE is organized on a government-wide basis, 95 per cent of its affiliates are at the state level, such as the 12,000 member Colorado State Employees Association. Only one city-wide association, the Miami Beach Benevolent Employees Organization, is claimed by AGE, and there the police are separately represented by the Fraternal Order of Police. The remainder of AGE’s strength is with such affiliates as the Public Employees Association of Riverside, California, which encompasses all county employees – including deputy sheriffs – along with the employees of fifteen municipalities and ten special service districts.

TYPE III: INDEPENDENT POLICE ASSOCIATIONS

Independent police associations limit their membership to police personnel and may be national, statewide, or local in nature.

National Independent Police Associations–Formed in 1953, the initial purpose of the International Conference of Police Associations (ICPA) was to promote the exchange of information among police employee organizations. Until 1973 membership in the ICPA was open only to bona fide police associations [3, p. 2]. However, late in that year ICPA made the decision to become a police union. Presently it represents about 182,000 officers in about 400 locals, with some 70 of the locals being in the New York City area. Illinois, New Jersey, and California are other states in which the ICPA has considerable membership [10].

The other major national police independent is the Fraternal Order of Police, which grew out of FOP Lodge #1 established in Pittsburgh in 1915. The FOP’s 1,000 local lodges and 150,000 members are...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Preface
• PART I MUNICIPAL PROTECTION EMPLOYEES: ORGANIZATIONS, NEGOTIATIONS AND IMPLICATIONS
• PART II COLLECTIVE BARGAINING IN THE MASS TRANSIT INDUSTRY
• PART III NEGOTIATIONS AND HEALTH
• PART IV UNIONIZATION IN THE ARMED FORCES
• PART V EMPLOYEE RELATIONS IN THE FEDERAL SERVICE
• PART VI ISSUES THAT TRANSCEND OCCUPATIONAL LINES