Collective Bargaining Will Hold Tenn. Budget Hostage
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: John Kartch
11 JANUARY 2008
202-785-0266
Labor Group Condemns Recent SEIU Bargaining Push in Chattanooga
Washington, D.C. — Today, the Alliance for Worker Freedom (AWF) issued a statement opposing the recent push in Chattanooga, Tenn. by the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) that will force the state to bargain with union demands.
While this measure is still just a murmur on the grounds in Chattanooga, according to AWF’s policy director Brian Johnson, “Collective bargaining is nothing more than a vehicle used by the union-bosses to hold state budgets hostage.”
Previously, the SEIU has been engaged in unionizing day-care providers and turning them into state employees for the purposes of bargaining. Efforts that Johnson contends only serve to increase the union dues collected by the SEIU at a time when private sector union membership is at historic lows.
When states cave and force collective bargaining, everyone loses,” says Johnson. “By giving one labor group authority to demand an increase on salaries, benefits and promotions, which collective bargaining does, everyone else has something taken away.”
Currently, 37 states have some form of forced collective bargaining. These deals vary in degree of transparency, from states that allow public access to bargaining sessions like Florida and Alaska, to states with completely closed, backroom sessions such as Delaware and Connecticut. Johnson says collective bargaining measures can render the employer or the state helpless to the demands of the union.
This issue not only affects the members who are pushing for bargaining deals. “These backroom, sweetheart deals will restrict the ability of the elected city officials to control benefits and regulate salary. If firefighters go on strike and demand more money, guess who will now pay their salary: the taxpayer.”
Johnson says his group supports the efforts made by Hamilton County Mayor Claude Ramsey opposing mandatory collective bargaining and strongly urges others to follow in suit.
