Articles Tagged politics

First Amendment Protects Speech, Not ‘Mere Candidacy’ For Public Office

November 14th, 2011

[The remainder of this article is protected for Public Safety Labor News subscribers only]
This article appears in the December 2011 issue.

Posted in: First Amendment, Freedom Of Speech, Public Safety Labor News

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Tulsa Firefighters Union Hits Campaign Trail Despite Mayor’s Directive

September 13th, 2011

TULSA, OK – The Tulsa Firefighters believe they have found a way around Mayor Dewey Bartlett’s executive order prohibiting public employees from campaigning in city elections. They have enlisted retired firefighters, friends, family and out-of-town firefighters to campaign on their behalf.

“We don’t believe that we’re doing anything shady or out-of-line here. We’re simply just using citizens who still have the right to campaign,” Dennis Moseby, Firefighters Union President, said.

The mayor’s office disagrees. The mayor’s press secretary said the firefighters’ actions are against the spirit of the of the order.

Read the executive order.

From Newson6.com.

Posted in: Recent Developments

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Albuquerque Fire Chief Under Political Attack

July 25th, 2011

From KOAT.com:

The fallout continues after Darren White’s retirement as Albuquerque public safety director.

Fire chief James Breen is under attack for not standing up to White after the former public safety director claimed paramedics weren’t equipped to take his wife to the hospital after a car accident.

Breen, who faces a no-confidence vote next week, wrote a memo to all firefighters, saying that there “seems to be blood in the water,” following White’s comments.

Read the rest of the story…

Posted in: Recent Developments

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Small Town Politics Result In Verdict In Deputy’s Favor

July 19th, 2011

Cooper County, Missouri has a population of 17,061, and a sheriff’s department made up of both reserves and a few sworn deputies. The Sheriff is Jerry Wolfe. Dwight Pfeiffer was one of Wolfe’s deputies, his wife Robin Pfeiffer was a reserve deputy, and his stepdaughter Jennifer Tice was a detention officer.

In 2008, Dwight Pfeiffer ran against Wolfe and lost. Within weeks, Wolfe fired both Pfeiffers and Tice. Pfeiffer brought a First Amendment free speech lawsuit against the County and Wolfe; his relatives brought wrongful termination claims. A jury ruled in Wolfe’s favor in the relatives’ case, but awarded Pfeiffer $50,000 in actual damages. Wolfe then challenged the award to Pfeiffer, claiming Pfeiffer’s conduct was not protected by the First Amendment.

A federal trial court judge rejected Wolfe’s request to set aside the verdict. The Court ruled that “although there was sufficient evidence from which the jury could have concluded that Dwight was discharged for reasons other than his identification as a candidate for Cooper County Sheriff, there was also sufficient evidence supporting its decision that Dwight’s candidacy was a motivating factor in Wolfe’s decision to fire him. The circumstantial evidence here is substantial. After running against Dwight in the election, Defendant Wolfe fired Dwight – along with his wife and stepdaughter – as soon as he took office. In fact, he delivered the termination notices personally at their home before he took office. Plaintiffs were the only employees terminated by Wolfe at that time.

“Wolfe also testified that he had hoped that Dwight would leave voluntarily if he won the election. The reasons that Defendant Wolfe listed in the letter to Dwight were: ‘1. Modification of staffing arrangements; 2. Your services no longer required.’ In documents sent to the Missouri Department of Public Safety, Wolfe stated only ‘[s]ervices no longer needed’ as the reason for Dwight’s and Robin’s dismissal. Especially since Wolfe emphasized the necessity of trust in police work, one could have expected him to indicate to the Missouri Department of Public Safety that Dwight could not be trusted if that were his rationale for discharging him.

“A reasonable juror could have concluded that Wolfe fired Dwight because he ran against him for Cooper County Sheriff and did not want him in his office. The jury unanimously reached that conclusion after hearing Dwight and Wolfe testify – allowing the jurors to judge their credibility – even while it denied the claims of Robin and Jennifer. The Court declines to overturn the jury’s verdict based on a lack of evidence.”

Pfeiffer v. Wolfe, 2011 WL 2009706 (W.D. Mo. 2011).

Posted in: First Amendment, Public Safety Labor News

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Cuts In Collective Bargaining In Ohio

June 1st, 2011

While there has been much focus on the drama that produced Wisconsin’s changes in its public employees collective bargaining law, even more substantial changes have occurred in Ohio. The political dynamics in the two states are the same – newly-elected Republican majorities in both houses of the legislature, and a Republican governor. Unlike Wisconsin’s law, however, Senate Bill 5 in Ohio, signed into law on April 1, 2011 by Governor John Kasich, focuses on public safety employees as well as general employees.

One of the most important changes was the elimination of binding arbitration for law enforcement and fire protection personnel. Instead, the legislative body of the public employer will be the final decision-maker with respect to any dispute that is unresolved. Any agreement determined by the legislative body must be in effect for three years. If the legislative body fails to select a last best offer, the public employer’s last best offer becomes the agreement between the parties.

SB 5 doesn’t stop there. The bill expands the definition of “supervisor” in police and fire departments, reducing the number of employees eligible to be in a union. More specifically, SB 5 prohibits an appropriate unit of firefighters from including rank and file members with members who are of the rank lieutenant and above.

The scope of what is negotiable is also greatly reduced. SB 5 permits public employers to not bargain on any subject reserved to the management and direction of the governmental unit, even if the subject affects wages, hours, and terms and conditions of employment. The Bill bars a collective bargaining agreement from prohibiting a public employer that is in a state of fiscal emergency from serving a written notice to terminate, modify, or negotiate the agreement, and makes illegal a collective bargaining agreement from prohibiting a public employer that is in a state of fiscal watch from serving a written notice to modify a collective bargaining agreement so that salary or benefit increases, or both, are suspended.

The new law turns Ohio into a “right-to-work” state by banning contracts from containing a provision that requires as a condition of employment that the nonmembers of the employee organization pay to the employee organization a fair share fee. SB 5 also bars collective bargaining agreements from containing provisions limiting a public employer’s ability to privatize operations.

SB 5 does not leave benefits untouched. DROP plans are prohibited, as are agreements under which an employer agrees to pay any portion of the employee’s pension contribution. The statute caps vacation leave for most public employees at 7.7 hours per biweekly pay period and limits total accrual for those public employees currently accruing 9.2 hours per pay period. Sick leave accrual for most public employees is capped at 3.1 hours per biweekly pay period. SB 5 directly takes on health insurance, limiting public employer contributions toward health care benefit costs to 85%, and requiring health care benefits provided to management level employees to be the same as any health care benefits provided to other employees of the same public employer. SB 5 also removes consideration of seniority and length of service, by itself, from decisions regarding a reduction in work force of certain public employees.

The new law not only prohibits public employees from striking, it also requires the public employer to deduct from the compensation of a striking employee an amount equal to twice the employee’s daily rate of pay for each day or part-day that the employee engaged in a strike.

The breadth of SB 5 is extensive. The law expands the list of unfair labor practices that may be committed by an employee organization, its agents, or public employees and the remedies that may be applied for unfair labor practices committed by those entities. It requires a public employer to report certain information about compensation paid to public employees under a collective bargaining agreement, and repeals a provision requiring the Public Employee Collective Bargaining Law to be liberally construed.

A referendum drive has been started to refer SB 5 to the voters. Under Ohio law, 231,149 signatures must be collected for the referendum election to be held. If enough signatures are submitted by June 30, 2011, the law will not go into effect unless and until the voters approve it.

This article appears in the June 2011 Issue

Posted in: Collective Bargaining, Public Safety Labor News, Sample

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