UPDATED-> Bill did not go through !
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Senate Democrats on Thursday dropped a bill
allowing all police, firefighters and other first responders to
unionize after Republicans complained they didn't get enough time to
offer amendments.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said he did not have enough votes to force final consideration of the bill.
The two top senators on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pension Committee, Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., and Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., will try to work out an agreement before the bill comes back for consideration, Reid said. READ MORE!
ORIGINAL STORY
Yesterday I asked you to join with American Rights at Work
to contact your Senator and ask them to approve the bill that would
allow basic collective bargaining for public safety officers.
From AFL-CIO Now Blog (5/13/08):
The U.S. Senate today moved a step closer to approving legislation
that would protect the collective bargaining rights of tens of
thousands of firefighters, police officers, emergency medical
technicians and other public safety officers.
By a 69–29
vote, the Senate killed a filibuster led by several extreme anti-worker
Republican senators against the workers’ rights bill. Eighteen
Republicans joined all Democrats in backing the move to end the
filibuster. The vote on final passage is expected later this week.
Some
20 states do not fully protect the bargaining rights of firefighters,
police officers and other first responders. Two states—Virginia and
North Carolina—prohibit public safety employees from collectively
bargaining.
With final passage near certain, the only thing that
stands in the first responders’ path to securing the workplace rights
most other workers enjoy is a veto threat from the Bush administration.
But today’s veto-proof vote, coupled with last July’s 314–97 House vote, provides more than the two-thirds majority needed in each chamber to overturn a veto.
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