Backgrounder
Public Safety Employer-Employee Cooperation Act
Bill name: Public Safety Employer-Employee Cooperation Act
Bill sponsor: H.R. 1154, sponsored by Dan Kildee (D-MI), S. 1394, sponsored by Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI).
Summary: The Public Safety Employer-Employee Cooperation Act requires states and local government to collectively bargain with public safety employees― namely law enforcement officers, firefighters, and emergency medical services personnel.
- The Federal Labor Relations Authority (FLRA) would be required to supervise state and local union elections as well as hear and resolve related complaints.
- The FLRA is an independent agency of the federal government charged with adjudicating labor relations between federal employees and the federal government. At present, the FLRA has no jurisdiction over state or local public-sector employees.
- This bill preempts state laws governing public sector employee-employer relations. States that do not allow public sector collective bargaining would be required to allow it for public safety employees and be bound by the FLRA’s determinations on hours, wages, and terms and conditions of employment. Strikes and lockouts would be prohibited for public safety employees.
Bill Status: H.R. 1154 was reintroduced in February 2019, and its companion, S.1394, was reintroduced in the Senate in May 2019. A bill repeatedly offered since the late 1990s, it was approved by the House in 2007. The Senate most recently considered the bill in 2010, though cloture was not invoked.
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