In 1985 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled, in Garcia v. San Antonio Metropolitan Transit Authority , that states have exactly the same legal standing as private employers when it comes to labor market regulation. Thus Congress may, if it chooses, impose minimum wage, maximum hour, and labor relations regulations on the states in their role as employers. Almost immediately after the Garcia ruling former Rep. William Clay from Missouri proposed a federal statute that would force all states to adopt compulsory collective bargaining for all of their state and local government employees. Worse, the idea drew substantial bipartisan support in the Senate as well as the House. The record of disaster in the states that already give public safety unions such privileges is clear.
Public safety disappears.
When firefighters are prevented by their unions from fighting fires, and when police are prevented by their unions from maintaining order and pursuing criminals, civil society dissolves into chaos. The police and fire strikes in San Francisco during the 1970s illustrate the point. The proposed legislation would expose the twenty states that now deny NLRA-style privileges to public safety unions to similar disasters. Public sector unions with NLRA-style privileges are almost never deterred by laws that make strikes illegal, and they are never prosecuted for breaking the law. The 107th Congress should drive a stake through the heart of this idea as soon as possible.