I

106TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION H. R. 1093

To provide collective bargaining rights for public safety officers employed

by States or their political subdivisions.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

MARCH 11, 1999

Mr. KILDEE (for himself, Mr. NEY, Mr. ABERCROMBIE, Mr. ACKERMAN, Mr.

ALLEN, Mr. BAIRD, Mr. BALDACCI, Mr. BARCIA, Mr. BARRETT of Wisconsin, Mr. BERMAN, Mr. BLAGOJEVICH, Mr. BLUMENAUER, Mr. BOEHLERT, Mr. BONIOR, Mr. BORSKI, Mr. BOSWELL, Mr. BOYD, Mr. BRADY

of Pennsylvania, Ms. BROWN of Florida, Mr. BROWN of California, Mr.

BROWN of Ohio, Mr. CAMPBELL, Mrs. CAPPS, Mr. CAPUANO, Mr. CLAY,

Mrs. CLAYTON, Mr. COYNE, Mr. CRAMER, Mr. CROWLEY, Mr. DAVIS of

Florida, Mr. DAVIS of Virginia, Mr. DEFAZIO, Mr. DELAHUNT, Ms.

DELAURO, Mr. DEUTSCH, Mr. DIAZ-BALART, Mr. DICKS, Mr. DOYLE,

Mr. DUNCAN, Mr. ENGEL, Mr. ENGLISH, Mr. FARR of California, Mr.

FATTAH, Mr. FILNER, Mr. FOLEY, Mr. FORBES, Mr. FORD, Mr. FROST,

Mr. GALLEGLY, Mr. GEJDENSON, Mr. GILMAN, Mr. GONZALEZ, Mr.

GREEN of Texas, Mr. GUTIERREZ, Mr. HINOJOSA, Mr. HOLDEN, Mr.

HOYER, Ms. KAPTUR, Mr. KENNEDY of Rhode Island, Mr. KIND, Mr.

KING, Mr. KLECZKA, Mr. KLINK, Mr. KUCINICH, Mr. LAMPSON, Mr.

LANTOS, Mr. LATOURETTE, Ms. LEE, Mr. LEWIS of Georgia, Mr.

LOBIONDO, Ms. LOFGREN, Mrs. LOWEY, Mr. LUTHER, Mr.

MCDERMOTT, Mr. MCGOVERN, Mr. MALONEY of Connecticut, Mr. MARTINEZ, Mr. MASCARA, Mrs. MEEK of Florida, Mr. METCALF, Ms.

MILLENDER-MCDONALD, Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California, Mrs. MINK

of Hawaii, Mrs. MORELLA, Mr. NEAL of Massachusetts, Ms. NORTON,

Mr. OBERSTAR, Mr. OLVER, Mr. OWENS, Mr. PALLONE, Mr. PASCRELL,

Mr. PASTOR, Mr. PAYNE, Mr. QUINN, Mr. RAHALL, Mr. RAMSTAD, Mr.

REYES, Ms. RIVERS, Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN, Mr. ROTHMAN, Mrs. ROUKEMA, Mr. RUSH, Mr. SANDERS, Mr. SANDLIN, Mr. SAWYER, Mr. SHERMAN, Mr. SHOWS, Ms. SLAUGHTER, Mr. SNYDER, Ms. STABENOW, Mr.

STARK, Mr. STRICKLAND, Mr. STUPAK, Mr. SUNUNU, Mrs. TAUSCHER,

Mrs. THURMAN, Mr. TIERNEY, Mr. TOWNS, Mr. TRAFICANT, Mr. VENTO,

Mr. WALSH, Mr. WAXMAN, Mr. WELDON of Pennsylvania, Mr. WELLER,

Mr. WEYGAND, Mr. WEXLER, Ms. WOOLSEY, Mr. WYNN, and Mr.
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YOUNG of Alaska) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the

Committee on Education and the Workforce

A BILL

To provide collective bargaining rights for public safety

officers employed by States or their political subdivisions.

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Public Safety Em5 ployer-Employee Cooperation Act of 1999’’.

6 SEC. 2. DECLARATION OF PURPOSE AND POLICY.

7 The Congress declares that the following is the policy

8 of the United States:

9 (1) Labor-management relationships and part10 nerships are based on trust, mutual respect, open

11 communications, bilateral and consensual problem

12 solving, and shared accountability. Labor-manage13 ment cooperation fully utilizes the strengths of both

14 parties to best serve the interests of the public, oper15 ating as a team to carry out the public safety mis16 sion in a quality work environment. In many public

17 safety agencies it is the union that provides the in18 stitutional stability as elected leaders and appointees

19 come and go.
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1 (2) The health and safety of the Nation and the

2 best interest of public safety employers and employ3 ees can be best protected by the settlement of issues

4 through the processes of collective bargaining.

5 (3) The Federal Government needs to encour6 age conciliation, mediation, and voluntary arbitra7 tion to aid and encourage employers and the rep8 resentatives of their employees to reach and main9 tain agreements concerning rates of pay, hours, and

10 working conditions, and to make all reasonable ef11 forts through negotiations to settle their differences

12 by mutual agreement reached through collective bar13 gaining or by such methods as may be provided for

14 in any applicable agreement for the settlement of

15 disputes.

16 (4) The absence of adequate cooperation be17 tween public safety employers and employees has im18 plications for the security of employees and can af19 fect interstate and intrastate commerce. Addition20 ally, the lack of such labor-management cooperation

21 detrimentally impacts the upgrading of police and

22 fire services of local communities, the health and

23 well-being of public safety officers, and the morale of

24 the fire and police departments. These factors could

25 have significant commercial repercussions. Moreover,
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1 providing minimal standards for collective bar2 gaining negotiations in the public safety industry

3 will prevent industrial strife between labor and man4 agement that interferes with the normal flow of com5 merce.

6 SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS.

7 For purposes of this Act:

8 (1) The term ‘‘Authority’’ means the Federal

9 Labor Relations Authority.

10 (2) The term ‘‘public safety officer’’ means an

11 employee of a public safety agency who is a law en12 forcement officer, a firefighter, or emergency med13 ical services personnel. The term includes an indi14 vidual who is temporarily transferred to a super15 visory or administrative position, but does not in16 clude a permanent management or supervisory em17 ployee.

18 (3) The term ‘‘firefighter’’ means an individual

19 employed by a fire department who—

20 (A) primarily performs work directly re21 lated to the control and extinguishment of fires;

22 (B) is responsible for the maintenance and

23 use of firefighting apparatus and equipment,

24 fire prevention and investigation, communica25 tions and dispatch; or
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1 (C) provides emergency medical care.

2 (4) The term ‘‘emergency medical services per3 sonnel’’ means an individual who provides out-of4 hospital emergency medical care, including an emer5 gency medical technician, paramedic, or first re6 sponder.

7 (5) The term ‘‘law enforcement officer’’ has the

8 same meaning given such term in section 1204(5) of

9 the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of

10 1968 (42 U.S.C. 3796b(5)).

11 (6) The term ‘‘law enforcement agency’’ means

12 a State or local public agency that is charged by law

13 with the duty to prevent or investigate crimes or ap14 prehend or hold in custody persons charged with or

15 convicted of crimes.

16 (7) The term ‘‘supervisory employee’’ means an

17 individual employed by a public safety employer

18 who—

19 (A) has the authority in the interest of the

20 employer to hire, direct, assign, promote, re21 ward, transfer, furlough, layoff, recall, suspend,

22 discipline, or remove public safety, officers, to

23 adjust their grievances or to effectively rec24 ommend such action, if the exercise of the au25 thority is not merely routine or clerical in na-
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1 ture but requires the consistent exercise of

2 independent judgment; and

3 (B) devotes a majority of time at work ex4 ercising such authority.

5 (8) The term ‘‘management employee’’ means

6 an individual employed by a public safety employer

7 in a position that requires or authorizes the indi8 vidual to formulate, determine, or influence the poli9 cies of the employer.

10 (9) The terms ‘‘employer’’ and ‘‘public safety

11 employer’’ mean any State, political subdivision of a

12 State, the District of Columbia, or any territory or

13 possession of the United States that employs public

14 safety officers.

15 SEC. 4. RIGHTS AND RESPONSIBILITIES; DETERMINATION.

16 (a) RIGHTS AND RESPONSIBILITIES.—In making a

17 determination described in subsection (b), the Authority

18 shall consider whether State law provides rights and re19 sponsibilities that include—

20 (1) granting public safety officers the right to

21 form and join a labor organization that does not in22 clude management and supervisory employees and

23 that is, or seeks to be, recognized as the exclusive

24 bargaining agent of such employees;
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1 (2) requiring public safety employers to recog2 nize the employees’ labor organization (freely chosen

3 by a majority of the employees), to agree to bargain

4 with the labor organization, and to commit any

5 agreements to writing in a contract or memorandum

6 of understanding;

7 (3) allowing bargaining over hours, wages,

8 terms, and conditions of employment;

9 (4) prohibiting bargaining over issues which are

10 traditional and customary management functions;

11 (5) protecting all existing collective bargaining

12 agreements, memoranda of understanding, certifi13 cations, recognitions, and elections;

14 (6) requiring fact finding in the event of an in15 terest impasse;

16 (7) allowing the parties voluntarily to agree to

17 submit disagreements to arbitration;

18 (8) requiring enforcement through State courts

19 of all rights, responsibilities, and protections pro20 vided in this section and of any written contract or

21 memorandum of understanding; and

22 (9) prohibiting strikes and lockouts.

23 (b) DETERMINATION.—

24 (1) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 180 days

25 after the date of enactment of this Act, the Author-
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1 ity shall issue a determination as to whether a State

2 substantially provides for the rights and responsibil3 ities described in subsection (a).

4 (2) SUBSEQUENT DETERMINATIONS.—A deter5 mination issued pursuant to paragraph (1) shall re6 main in effect until an employer or labor organiza7 tion submits a written request to the Authority to

8 issue a subsequent such determination. The Director

9 shall issue the determination not later than 30 days

10 after receipt of such a request.

11 (c) FAILURE TO MEET REQUIREMENTS.—A State

12 that does not substantially provide for the rights and re13 sponsibilities described in subsection (a) shall be subject

14 to the regulations and procedures described in section 5

15 until a subsequent determination is made.

16 SEC. 5. ROLE OF AUTHORITY.

17 (a) IN GENERAL.—Not later than one year after the

18 date of the enactment of this Act, the Authority shall issue

19 regulations in accordance with the rights and responsibil20 ities described in section 4(a) establishing collective bar21 gaining procedures for public safety employers and officers

22 in States that do not substantially provide for the rights

23 and responsibilities described in section 4(a).

24 (b) ROLE OF THE FEDERAL LABOR RELATIONS AU25 THORITY.—The Authority shall, to the extent provided in
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1 this Act and in accordance with regulations prescribed by

2 the Authority—

3 (1) determine the appropriateness of units for

4 labor organization representation;

5 (2) supervise or conduct elections to determine

6 whether a labor organization has been selected as an

7 exclusive representative by a majority of the employ8 ees in an appropriate unit;

9 (3) resolve issues relating to the duty to bar10 gain in good faith;

11 (4) conduct hearings and resolve complaints of

12 unfair labor practices;

13 (5) resolve exceptions to arbitrator’s awards;

14 and

15 (6) take such other actions as are necessary

16 and appropriate to effectively administer the provi17 sions of this Act.

18 (c) ENFORCEMENT.—A public safety employer, offi19 cer, and labor organization each shall have the right to

20 seek enforcement of this section through appropriate State

21 courts.

22 SEC. 6. STRIKES AND LOCKOUTS PROHIBITED.

23 A public safety employer, officer, or labor organiza24 tion may not engage in lockouts or strikes.
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1 SEC. 7. EXISTING COLLECTIVE BARGAINING UNITS AND

2 AGREEMENTS.

3 A certification, recognition, election-held, collective

4 bargaining agreement or memorandum of understanding

5 which has been issued, approved, or ratified by any public

6 employee relations board or commission or by any State

7 or political subdivision or its agents (management offi8 cials) in effect on the day before the date of enactment

9 of this Act shall not be invalidated by the enactment of

10 this Act.

11 SEC. 8. CONSTRUCTION AND COMPLIANCE.

12 (a) CONSTRUCTION.—Nothing in this Act shall be

13 construed to invalidate or limit the remedies, rights, and

14 procedures of any law of any State or political subdivision

15 of any State or jurisdiction that provides greater or equal

16 collective bargaining rights for public safety employees.

17 (b) COMPLIANCE.—No State shall preempt laws or

18 ordinances of any of its political subdivisions which pro19 vide greater or equal collective bargaining rights for public

20 safety employees in order to comply with this Act.

21 SEC. 9. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.

22 There are authorized to be appropriated such sums

23 as may be necessary to carry out the provisions of this

24 Act.

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