|
|
As expected SB 1271 was heard this past week in
the House Local Government II Committee on Wednesday, June 18, 2008 at
10 a.m.
And as predicted, the change added to the original bill language was
ultimately what killed it. The bill was defeated by a vote of 6-7. The
six YES votes were all law enforcement or firefighter endorsed.
Unfortunately, some of the NO votes also supported law enforcement, fire
and rescue but, not the agenda of other labor groups.
Despite the promise of Teamster Clout and influence to force a favorable
committee report this time the same concern that turned a 40-8
bipartisan Senate victory into a weakened and partisan vote, resulted in
a 6-7 House committee defeat.
This is the second time in recent legislative sessions that a labor
group new to the state lobbying efforts to support law enforcement
officers, helped kill a bill to support law enforcement officers.
Ironically, the only substantive law enforcement members who made the
Teamsters eligible for payroll deduction under the provisions of SB
1278, already have payroll deduction in their local agency. However,
because of those law enforcement members, all of the other non-law
enforcement members would also be eligible under the bill change. In the
end, too many legislators would not buy into the substance or method by
which the bill was changed.
Several management groups that did not speak against the original bill
came out in force to oppose the latest version as to what they called a
“1st Strike Collective Bargaining bill.”
Now lost to our police, fire and rescue first responders, is a bill that
simply provided a convenient method of dues deduction to ensure that
those who risk everything for others, do not run the risk of losing
important legal and death benefit coverage for themselves and their
families.
|