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Memo To Police Union Reps: Do Be Careful, Please
By Desert Beacon
December 27, 2014
<snip>
As long as the police are keeping such movements as the ā99%ā Occupy Whatever under control the powers that be will be supportive.
However, thereās a chink in the Kevlar. The police are fine as long as they donāt ask for āexorbitantā overtime pay, or get negotiated pension benefits which appear ātoo large.ā United Airlines is bristling at the pay for security personnel (police/firefighters) at the Newark airport. [ChAviation] Wages for Port Authority Police are under scrutiny as some veteran officers earn six figure salaries ā one example, which is not identified as an outlier, given as $221,000. [NBC]
<snip>
Now āunionsā come under fire for āputting the needs of the teacher ahead of the needs of the studentsā for daring to declare that a salary schedule might need enhancement to meet the financial needs of the teachers in the system. Once again, the question is framed NOT as how revenue might be generated to pay teachers what they are worth and what they need, but how demands for salary increases are jeopardizing the services the school can provide. So-called āreformersā come from the woodwork and every other conceivable direction to tell the general public that in order to āimproveā education the union must be broken, and teacher paid based on some matrix of quantifiable factors ā as if education and schooling were one and the same.
The police unions are perilously close to the edge of the āpublic employees at the troughā and āprotectors of the incompetentā charges when they negotiate wages and benefits. Once more, when itās a question of controlling the āgreat unwashedā the conservatives are supportive, but when it comes to a question of paying for that āprotectionā the conservatives are willing to slip easily into their Taxpayer Protector mode ā not the regular garden variety taxpayer, but the tax benefited, bond holding, variety.
Itās almost guaranteed that when the police negotiators come up against those who want to protect bondholders and tax break benefited interests their status as āpublic servantsā at servantsā wages will be inserted into the public discussion. One of the banners so often waved in teachersā faces is the canard that unions protect the incompetent, the extrapolation of this is, of course, do away with the union and the problem will be solved.
Policeman Police Thyself. Thereās a way to defend against the latter charge, but it requires some humility. The boisterous defense of police activities by union leadership in St. Louis, Cleveland, and New York City, may ring well to the rank and file in the short term; however, it doesnāt take too much effort for the other shoe to drop ā a public perception that the union is protecting incompetent officers. Therefore, it might be recommended that:
Police union leadership should remind the public that the union is protecting the contract, not necessarily the actions of a few officers. If the master agreement calls for a specific response to matters of suspension, demotion, or dismissal, then the union should insure the due process rights of its membership. After all, the union is collecting dues, and those dues include defense of the person and the contract provisions.
Perhaps instead of caterwauling about an attack on the police from an uncooperative community, the union representative might want to say, āOfficer X is facing some very serious charges, charges which could result in his suspension, demotion, or dismissal, and his union is tasked with defending his due process rights under our master agreement at every step in that process.ā
If more comment is deemed necessary, then something like the following could be offered: āOfficer X is guaranteed by our contract to have every opportunity to present his defense, and we will help him present it.ā (It isnāt necessary for the representative to add in public ā āIf he can dream one up.ā)
The foregoing hypothetical allows the union to present its case as a defense of the contract provisions ā and how many people donāt believe that contracts should be honored? ā instead of taking the posture that even the most egregious actions by an individual union member should be fiercely defended in the public domain.
<snip>
.
"One of the banners so often waved in teachersā faces is the canard that unions protect the incompetent, the extrapolation of this is, of course, do away with the union and the problem will be solved." ~ Desert Beacon
Memo To Police Union Reps: Do Be Careful, Please
By Desert Beacon
December 27, 2014
<snip>
As long as the police are keeping such movements as the ā99%ā Occupy Whatever under control the powers that be will be supportive.
However, thereās a chink in the Kevlar. The police are fine as long as they donāt ask for āexorbitantā overtime pay, or get negotiated pension benefits which appear ātoo large.ā United Airlines is bristling at the pay for security personnel (police/firefighters) at the Newark airport. [ChAviation] Wages for Port Authority Police are under scrutiny as some veteran officers earn six figure salaries ā one example, which is not identified as an outlier, given as $221,000. [NBC]
<snip>
Now āunionsā come under fire for āputting the needs of the teacher ahead of the needs of the studentsā for daring to declare that a salary schedule might need enhancement to meet the financial needs of the teachers in the system. Once again, the question is framed NOT as how revenue might be generated to pay teachers what they are worth and what they need, but how demands for salary increases are jeopardizing the services the school can provide. So-called āreformersā come from the woodwork and every other conceivable direction to tell the general public that in order to āimproveā education the union must be broken, and teacher paid based on some matrix of quantifiable factors ā as if education and schooling were one and the same.
The police unions are perilously close to the edge of the āpublic employees at the troughā and āprotectors of the incompetentā charges when they negotiate wages and benefits. Once more, when itās a question of controlling the āgreat unwashedā the conservatives are supportive, but when it comes to a question of paying for that āprotectionā the conservatives are willing to slip easily into their Taxpayer Protector mode ā not the regular garden variety taxpayer, but the tax benefited, bond holding, variety.
Itās almost guaranteed that when the police negotiators come up against those who want to protect bondholders and tax break benefited interests their status as āpublic servantsā at servantsā wages will be inserted into the public discussion. One of the banners so often waved in teachersā faces is the canard that unions protect the incompetent, the extrapolation of this is, of course, do away with the union and the problem will be solved.
Policeman Police Thyself. Thereās a way to defend against the latter charge, but it requires some humility. The boisterous defense of police activities by union leadership in St. Louis, Cleveland, and New York City, may ring well to the rank and file in the short term; however, it doesnāt take too much effort for the other shoe to drop ā a public perception that the union is protecting incompetent officers. Therefore, it might be recommended that:
Police union leadership should remind the public that the union is protecting the contract, not necessarily the actions of a few officers. If the master agreement calls for a specific response to matters of suspension, demotion, or dismissal, then the union should insure the due process rights of its membership. After all, the union is collecting dues, and those dues include defense of the person and the contract provisions.
Perhaps instead of caterwauling about an attack on the police from an uncooperative community, the union representative might want to say, āOfficer X is facing some very serious charges, charges which could result in his suspension, demotion, or dismissal, and his union is tasked with defending his due process rights under our master agreement at every step in that process.ā
If more comment is deemed necessary, then something like the following could be offered: āOfficer X is guaranteed by our contract to have every opportunity to present his defense, and we will help him present it.ā (It isnāt necessary for the representative to add in public ā āIf he can dream one up.ā)
The foregoing hypothetical allows the union to present its case as a defense of the contract provisions ā and how many people donāt believe that contracts should be honored? ā instead of taking the posture that even the most egregious actions by an individual union member should be fiercely defended in the public domain.
<snip>
.