To slip one through while no one's looking
FOR EMBARGOED RELEASED DATED SEPT. 28, 2001
THE LIBERTARIAN, By Vin Suprynowicz
To slip one through while no one's looking
Needless to say, "Sen. Kennedy and the National Right to Work Committee seldom see eye to eye," acknowledges John Tate, vice president of the Springfield, Virginia based grass-roots lobbying group.
Nonetheless, Mr. Tate says "Initially we figured even he wouldn't have done something like that. But when we looked at the schedule for the week and saw it was the only legislation coming through the committee except stuff related to the attack, and then when we saw he tried to put it through by unanimous consent -- usually a method reserved for 'Milk Month' and other non-controversial bills -- I'm afraid he did; it looks like Sen. Kennedy was trying to make a connection with the brave men up there, the firemen and policemen risking their lives up there in New York, trying to make some connection with this bill, when in fact there is no connection."
"Attempting to use our national crisis as a cover," is the way the official NRWC news release characterized it last Friday, "at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday night, in a mostly deserted Senate chamber, Big Labor ally Ted Kennedy brazenly tried to sneak through S. 952, the so-called 'Public Safety Employer-Employee Cooperation Act.' "
The bill, as characterized by the Right to Work Committee, would "create a new federal agency to force states and local governments to give Big Labor bosses monopoly bargaining power over their police, firefighters, county paramedics, and other public safety officers ... soaking state and local taxpayers for hundreds of millions of dollars annually in increased costs."
On Sept. 19, one of Mr. Kennedy's fellow senators objected to the "unanimous consent" proposal, though who actually blew the whistle on the clever maneuver by the senator who represents Chappaquiddick Island "is apparently not a matter of public record," Mr. Tate reports.
The NRWC contention that there was anything unusual about what Sen. Kennedy did, or any attempt to "sneak the bill through," is "categorically untrue," responds Kennedy spokesman Jim Manley in Washington.
"First, Sen. Kennedy is only a co-sponsor, the bill is authored by Sen. Judd Gregg, a staunchly Republican senator from the state of New Hampshire the last time I checked; it enjoys broad bipartisan support," Mr. Manley responds.
"Number 2 is that ... we were using normal procedures, we were trying to get it done in the so-called wrap-up at the end of the day ... by unanimous consent, and when someone from the Republican side objected that was it, there was no attempt to sneak anything through."
And as for the allegation that Sen. Kennedy tried to somehow imply passage of the measure would be an appropriate response to the terror bombings of Sept. 11?
"Well, it might have been a nice morale booster for those firefighters working so hard up in New York City," agrees Mr. Manley.
The bill would force states and municipalities to either recognize union officials as "exclusive bargaining agents" for police and firemen, or else hold union-representation elections within 180 days -- with unions that won majority support then authorized to negotiate contracts for all officers in the "bargaining unit."
The frequency of strikes against vital public services has "quadrupled, on average," in the period after such laws have taken effect on a state-by-state basis (primarily in heavily unionized New England, California, and the rust belt), according to a study conducted by the Public Service Research Council.
That's because "Government union bosses routinely ignore no-strike clauses, and get away with it," by demanding amnesty as a condition of settlements, the NRWC reports.
All of the damaging 1993 school strikes occurred in states which force teachers to accept union representation in order to teach, the NRWC reports -- none occurred in the 29 states which protect a teacher's right to work without union representation.
The reason such tactics are so costly in the public sector is precisely because government has a statutory monopoly over fire and police and other public safety services, Mr. Tate explains.
"In the private sector, if a union boss's demands cause inefficiency or poor service, a company may lose money or even go out of business. No matter how greedy, union official can't ignore this reality."
But "state agencies don't go out of business, or relocate, no matter how inefficient they are."
Regardless of its merits, this bill to advance the unionization of police and firemen by federal fiat should be debated and voted up or down precisely on its merits. Attempting to slip a controversial bill into law by submitting it for "unanimous consent" as though it were a "National Milk Month" resolution was indeed a sneaky maneuver.
Does Sen. Kennedy fear this proposal won't survive on its merits? Perhaps he should heed the advice of the former president who advised "Collective bargaining, as usually understood, can't be transplanted into public service. ... Actions looking toward the paralysis of government by those who have sworn to support it are unthinkable and intolerable."
Which president was that? Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 1937.
Vin Suprynowicz is assistant editorial page editor of the Las Vegas Review-Journal. To receive his longer, better stuff, subscribe to his monthly newsletter by sending $72 to Privacy Alert, 561 Keystone Ave., Suite 684, Reno, NV 89503 -- or dialing 775-348-8591.
Vin Suprynowicz, vin@lvrj.com
"When great changes occur in history, when great principles are involved, as a rule the majority are wrong. The minority are right." -- Eugene V. Debs (1855-1926)
"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed -- and thus clamorous to be led to safety -- by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary." -- H.L. Mencken
