Police unions, organized labor have rarely seen eye to eye

[Omaha Steve]

The last 2 & 1/2 years I worked for the city before retiring, I was a uniformed civilian Information Specialist Technician. I worked the front desk. Let me just say as a D liberal I was in the minority in my area.

OS

http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2014/12/22/police-unions-havealwaysbeenalabormovementapart.html

Unionized police officers have never sat comfortably within the broader labor movement, according to historians

December 22, 2014 3:49PM ET
by Ned Resnikoff @resnikoff

Police unions and the broader labor movement are marching in opposite directions. While many of America's biggest labor organizations support the recent protests against policing practices, unions representing law enforcement officers have largely closed ranks, lashing out against voices calling for reform.

That the major law enforcement unions have openly bucked the prevailing rhetoric of the rest of the labor movement regarding the deaths two unarmed black men killed by police: Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri and Eric Garner in Staten Island, New York reflects the historic tension between those who called strikes and those who enforced laws breaking them.

After Richard Trumka, president of the labor coalition AFL-CIO, co-signed an open letter to President Barack Obama regarding the "long list of black men and boys who have died under eerily similar circumstances" in August, he caught flak from police officers within the very coalition he oversees.

"In the aftermath of the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson and the death of Eric Garner in New York, the International Union of Police Associations withheld comment until facts were known," wrote its president, Sam Cabral, in early December. "We wish the administration as well as the president of the AFL-CIO had been as thoughtful. I believe that anyone making pronouncements before knowing the facts has an agenda, not a position."

FULL story at link.

[LincolnsLeftHand]

1. So is this a preface to abandoning the police unions?

Because I don't support that step.

[customerserviceguy]

2. It's called 'divide and conquer'

The Repukes are masters at playing that game.

[Omaha Steve]

4. Define abandoning

As far as if they are allowed to exist, that is up to the state governments for the most part.

Remember when police and fire backed Walker in his first run for governor that he exempted police and fire from the new laws that stuck it to the rest of the public unions in the state.

[Cerridwen]

3. The cops were almost always called in to put down labor protests and strikes.

The pinkertons keep coming to mind though I'm sure they weren't the first. "hired guns"

It goes back to almost the start of the labor movements here in the US.

My dad was a Teamster. Mom wouldn't let him tell me all the stories. The ones he did tell were ugly.

[juxtaposed]

5. police unions what i've seen are right-wing as a whole

police unions and fire fighter unions are always battling for a piece of each others pie.
I've never seen a cop come out in support of any other union but their own in my area.
Fire fighters seem to be more sympathetic to labor as a whole.

[LiberalFighter]

7. That is the same where I am.

The city eliminated all govt unions in the city except for the police and fire.

[LiberalFighter]

6. The indicator regarding "police unions" is that they don't refer themselves as a union.

They believe that term is beneath themselves.

[moondust]

8. Palace Guard vs. The People?

Perhaps in some places (like Staten Island). Growing inequality probably widening the division.

[Ramses]

9. i support all unions

Police,when they have assaulted or murdered someone should be held both criminally and civillaly liable. Teachers are held as such when there is wrongdoing. Health care workers are held as such. Cops, not at all. This needs to change

[Cha]

10. Thanks Steve.