Police unions “should be able to negotiate disciplinary matters” to protect officers from unfair punishment, AFL CIO president Richard Trumka said during an “Axios on HBO” interview.
Why this is important: After George Floyd’s death in an arrest last year and subsequent Black Lives Matter protests across the country, law enforcement unions are at the center of a heated debate in the labor movement.
- Racial justice leaders, the BLM movement and some unions affiliated with the AFL-CIO believe that police unions do not belong in the labor movement because they use their collective bargaining powers to protect agents from accountability and block reform efforts.
- They say it is inappropriate to negotiate leniency for police misconduct and that agreements make it difficult for firefighters who abuse their power or mistreat vulnerable minorities.
Trumka pushed back, without the power to impose disciplinary action, the results could be “erratic” in a way unfair to officers.
- One of the various federations of the AFL-CIO is the International Union of Police Associations, which negotiate on behalf of some local police unions.
- “Look, I come from a coal mine. My grandfather helped organize that coal mine and we had no protection whatsoever, ”Trumka said. ‘The employer has done all disciplinary matters. And I can tell you it was never fair and it didn’t help the police. ‘
Yes but: Police officers are authorized to carry weapons and use lethal force in their work.
- Progressive critics of police unions argue that negotiating disciplinary proceedings against an officer who may have murdered an unarmed black man is a fundamentally different proposition than negotiating sanctions against a miner or a teacher.
Other highlights: During the interview, Trumka also defended his legacy in the labor movement amid a period of decline.
- He aggressively opposed the criticism from younger union leaders that the movement under his wing has spent too much money and attention on political donations and not enough on organization.
- On the fraught topic of school reopening, he sided with the Chicago Teachers Union, rejecting comments from the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that vaccinations should not be a prerequisite for teachers to return to the class.
- Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot today announced a tentative deal that would reopen schools for parents seeking education in school.
Editor’s Note: Updates with preliminary deal for Chicago and its public school teachers.