#RedState moron would sooner eliminate police than let them unionize
5182 Dead, 315 since 1/20/09
GOP councilor would rather abolish police force than see it unionize
By Daniel Tencer
Tuesday, September 29th, 2009 -- 12:51 pm
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A conservative politician in Georgia is telling his hometown police
force to stop looking for the union label, or find new jobs.
Erick Erickson, the managing editor of RedState.com and a city
councilor in Macon, Georgia, has called for the abolition of Macon�s
police force if it votes to unionize.
The Macon Telegraph reported on Monday that some 130 police officers
on the city�s municipal force want to unionize because of �officers
bearing the burden of rising insurance costs, a loss of incentive pay
and the city not having a pay scale.�
�I�m thinking I�ll have the City Attorney draft me legislation to
dissolve the police department and contract with the Sheriff to
provide public safety services,� Erickson wrote on the blog Peach
Pundit.
�You didn�t read that incorrectly,� blogs Zaid Jilani. �Councilman
Erickson�s response to the possibility of Macon�s cops forming a labor
union is to abolish the police department.�
Dr. Barry Worthington
We don't have a national police force in Britain. But there is a
national association (the Police Federation), independent of the
state, that policemen and women belong to, an organisation that's
recognised by the Home Office and the Police Authorities. It
represents individuals in disputes relating to promotion and
disciplinary hearings. It negotiates national agreements (there is a
national pay scale) about pay and conditions. There is one thing that
it can't do....take industrial action (it would be illegal). Because
this is prohibited, there is a special system of independent
arbitration that is used in case of deadlock in negotiations.
As far as this dispute is concerned, one assumes that (i) the
introduction of a private insurance scheme by the employer and (ii)
the establishment of a proper pay scale would defuse the situation. It
night be funded, in the first instance with some of the stimulus cash
that Georgia presumably receives to spend on such projects as
maintaining necessary services.
Dr. Barry Worthington
5182 Dead, 315 since 1/20/09
And there are employers who have defused a threat to unionize by simply
matching or beating the union offer, often a situation that benefits both
employer and employees.
But I've read this Erickson's on-line babblings. He's a fascist, pure
and simple (I know you know what the term means, but for everyone else,
no, I'm not comparing him to Hitler) and has a deep antipathy toward
unions, but has no interest in assuring a decent living wage for
workers.
The weird thing is the county sheriffs he proposes to have replace the
town clowns are almost certainly already unionized. That suggests that
he is posturing more than anything.