| Time to circle the wagons |
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| Written by Ron DeLord |
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So who should be worried? The highly compensated law enforcement agencies, especially in areas of the country where the housing markets have collapsed, are the most vulnerable. These agencies have received wages and benefits that far exceed those enjoyed by the general public, including many of the elected officials. Some police unions have started to believe that they are bullet-proof from budget cuts. Just ask yourself what happened to the mighty auto workers, steel workers and coal miners. They were at the top of their game and collapsed. If your union believes nothing bad will happen, you are in for a rude awakening. It will start with a trickle such as civilianizing or contracting out more positions and using technology. The elected officials will tell the public, “Why should we pay a police officer $100,000 a year to do a job a non-sworn employee or private contractor will do for half the cost.” It is getting harder and harder to justify using sworn officers in many jobs that were traditionally police functions. The next move will include red light and eventually speed cameras to “free up” these highly paid officers for more serious police work. Do not expect the revenue to go back to the police department. Next the pressure will mount to create two-tier wage and benefit plans. Despite knowing the internal dissension that will be caused by having two officers working side-by-side, and each having different health insurance or pension plans, police unions are starting to accept or be forced to accept two-tier plans. The common employer pitch to the union is, “We can continue to fund your pension, but we must have budget relief by allowing the city to pay less for future officers. If you refuse, we will be forced to lower the pension for current officers.” The pressure to sell the unborn to save themselves is more than many union leaders can stand. And if all else fails to squeeze concessions out of the police budgets, the city will declare bankruptcy to abrogate its employee contracts like Vallejo, California did recently. While the city is far from bankrupt, the goal is to use tax payer money to tie the unions up in court and drain their treasuries. If you know what to expect in the future and you do not prepare yourself, you only have yourself to blame. Here are some simple rules when you are forced to say, “I never believed it would happen to me.” Rule No. 1 – The battle is in the Court of Public Opinion! The employer will be making its case to the public and media. It is a fight for the hearts and minds of the tax payers. If the public is in a foul mood over their personal finances, you will get little sympathy by arguing you deserve to be paid more than the high school principal. The message has to be directed to how the reduction in police services will impact their lives. It is all about the public! Rule No. 2 – The political fight is the main event and lawyers are a side show. If you are forced into the courthouse or arbitration, you may have waited too long to start the political machine. Police unions can avoid many of these issues by endorsing and supporting candidates who will not ask them to make such a decision, or negotiate in good faith with the union over any change. You have to recruit candidates and be involved in each election. Every decision impacting police officers is decided by a political vote. How many votes do you have on the issue? If you lack a majority, how many do you need to get right side up? Rule No. 3 – If you get caught behind the eight ball, and the employer is attacking you as a greedy and uncaring union you must identify the vocal critics and make them feel your pain. Somehow this seems to be where the unions get queasy and weak-kneed. It is often difficult to convince yourself or the members to picket some councilman’s business, put their home telephone numbers up on billboards, and in general make their lives a living hell. Union leaders who feel they are too professional to stoop to these tactics are the same ones who believe they can win by remote control using some lawyer. The bottom line: The main event is a POLITICAL GAME and the legal game is the side show. Unless you beat them politically, you will never win even if the courts one day decide in your favor. If you discover you cannot win under the current rules, change the rules, and go outside the experience of the elected officials. Think outside the box. Get dirty and fight to win. If you are in this predicament, then your elected officials did not RESPECT the union or the officers. To get respect you have to bloody their noses and demonstrate that the union is willing to make it personal, because it is personal on so many levels. Ron DeLord is the former executive director of the Combined Law Enforcement Associations of Texas (CLEAT). Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites          Comments (8)
  written by Ronald York, October 10, 2008
This is a very good article. If you have any doubts about Ron's judgment, just look at the success of his organization - CLEAT. CLEAT has been the key to the improvements in pay and benefits in Texas. Read his article and take it to heart. Ron "the shorter"
 written by GaryZ, October 11, 2008
Government Unions (especially Fire and Police) need to be outlawed. They are nothing but a SCAM and FRAUD on the taxpayers that operate like Organized Crime Syndicates (Mafia).
 written by Marc Garman, October 11, 2008
Are these the trained police personnel of today or the thugs of yester-year?
Public service or systematic exploitation...I'm not sure which it is. At a time when the economy is hitting so many people--both union members and non union members--HARD it is irrational to expect significant increases any time soon. Workers in all areas are seeing cuts due to lack of funding. We will all have to sacrifice before this is over. The selfish "me first" attitude is a big part of what caused the current global financial meltdown we must now endure.  written by Pyriphlegethon, October 11, 2008
Can you say "paramilitary". This column is proof positive that they are coming to (or already in) the US, and they are your local police.
This article--full of anger and hatred--is coming from a police union, representing those who are supposed to protect us and our civil rights? The whole county (non Public Safety) should be shuttering. "identify the vocal critics and make them feel your pain" Maybe YOU should feel OUR pain! And how do you plan to make US feel YOUR pain? If a police officer came up to me and said, I want you to feel my pain, I'd say that was assault. "make their lives a living hell" Need I say more? >:( >:( >:( >:( >:( >:( >:( >:(  written by i love vallejo, October 11, 2008
We posted this diatribe on the VIB website in Vallejo because these are the same despicable tactics that gave the unions control in our city. We the citizens are finally smart enough to be aware of this and are fighting back to get control of our finances. Your quote to bloody our noses is exactly the attitude that your unions take. You have to remember that we are the citizens and you work for us. You do not bloody the noses of the hand that writes your overpriced checks. Yes we are in bankruptcy and it is not a false bankruptcy. The police and fire employees in Vallejo have been taking the majority of our general fund for many years and caused us to finally scream "Uncle" We are broke and need to throw out your ridiculous contracts. We already won the first round in federal court and will eventually win in December and throw out those contracts and get control over our future. We also just got over 10,000 signatures to put a proposal to eliminate Binding Arbitration from our City Charter. We are now aware of your Bully tactics and are educating the populace. Thanks for this ridiculous letter as it has given up more ammo to use to fight you.
 written by George, October 13, 2008
One problem with your analysis is that it assumes that resources are infinite (as they were in the past) and that all you had to do was convince or coerce people into bumping up the pension percent rate and drop the number of years. Things MAY have changed and civil servants will have to explain what exactly they do for their money, to people who do not have secure jobs, their pension was their house, property taxes are making their house worthless. It is also likely that the money just is not there for past benefits, not just current or future.
A better plan might be to go for the $700 billion bailout (and any future bailouts). This plan is better because: 1) the money is there, 2) everything can be done behind the scenes. No explaining to nobody. Just a bit of lobbying, thats all. As a final suggestion. One legacy of the"Greatest Generation" is the repeal of prohibition. To a large extent the various spending schemes of the Roosevelt administration were financed with liquor sales. That is just the way it is. Grand Coulee dam good, DWI bad, paying civil service pensions good, lives destroyed by alchoholism bad, winning WWII good. Legalizing Marijuanna good/bad you pick, actually you may have to pick.  written by WT, October 17, 2008
To all you folks criticizing and "shuttering," am I to assume that when your employee bargaining unit goes to the table, you readily accept the first contract your employer offers, no questions asked? No strategies or hardball? If so, either your unit is weak, or your employer is wonderfully generous. I hope it's the latter.
 written by Sonic Toad, October 20, 2008
How sad it is that our public safety officers must use such tactics to keep their high salaries. It's pure greed and a lack of concern for the people they are supposed to protect. Read more about it at http://ibvallejo.com
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