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This set the stage for the catastrophic [[Boston Police Strike]] of 1919. The Boston force had informally organized since 1906 as the "Boston Social Club". They applied for an AFL charter, which was newly granted on August 15. The city and state, with shared oversight, both forbade this, and rejected a compromise. On September 9, some 72% of the police force refused to work. The city descended into four days and nights of lawlessness, with widespread property damage and nine killed outright, eight of them by members of the 5,000 [[Massachusetts State Defense Force|Massachusetts State Guard]] ordered in by Governor [[Calvin Coolidge]]. More than 1000 officers were fired and replaced by the city at the higher salaries the union had struck for.<ref>{{cite news |last1=MacQuarrie |first1=Brian |title=When the city was lawless: Recalling the Boston Police Strike of 1919 |url=https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2019/09/07/when-city-was-lawless-recalling-boston-police-strike/0YgNYLshnyfcxYkQnGKhvM/story.html |accessdate=30 June 2020 |publisher=Boston Globe |date=7 September 2019}}</ref> The event had a pronounced chilling effect on police unionization for decades. The Boston Police Patrolman's Association was formed 46 years later, in 1965, following a change in state law.<ref>Jack R. Greene, ''The Encyclopedia of Police Science'', 3rd edition, volume 1 (Routledge, 2007), 100, [https://books.google.com/books?id=HIE_zF1Rv7MC&pg=PA100& available online], accessed June 30, 2020</ref> A national police union would not be formed until the International Union of Police Association's creation in 1979. <ref>{{Cite book|last=DeLord|first=Ron|url=https://books.google.de/books?id=Td_cDQAAQBAJ&pg=PA12&lpg=PA12&dq=police+in+unions&source=bl&ots=YXqGMI8RcR&sig=ACfU3U3NaYY2yoY02qCUPHNHKGR9Z6vndw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiL5savvPPpAhWDCewKHUHfApAQ6AEwDXoECAkQAQ#v=onepage&q=police%20in%20unions&f=false|title=LAW ENFORCEMENT, POLICE UNIONS, AND THE FUTURE: Educating Police Management and Unions About the Challenges Ahead|last2=York|first2=Ron|date=2017-01-01|publisher=Charles C Thomas Publisher|isbn=978-0-398-09149-1|language=en}}</ref>
This set the stage for the catastrophic [[Boston Police Strike]] of 1919. The Boston force had informally organized since 1906 as the "Boston Social Club". They applied for an AFL charter, which was newly granted on August 15. The city and state, with shared oversight, both forbade this, and rejected a compromise. On September 9, some 72% of the police force refused to work. The city descended into four days and nights of lawlessness, with widespread property damage and nine killed outright, eight of them by members of the 5,000 [[Massachusetts State Defense Force|Massachusetts State Guard]] ordered in by Governor [[Calvin Coolidge]]. More than 1000 officers were fired and replaced by the city at the higher salaries the union had struck for.<ref>{{cite news |last1=MacQuarrie |first1=Brian |title=When the city was lawless: Recalling the Boston Police Strike of 1919 |url=https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2019/09/07/when-city-was-lawless-recalling-boston-police-strike/0YgNYLshnyfcxYkQnGKhvM/story.html |accessdate=30 June 2020 |publisher=Boston Globe |date=7 September 2019}}</ref> The event had a pronounced chilling effect on police unionization for decades. The Boston Police Patrolman's Association was formed 46 years later, in 1965, following a change in state law.<ref>Jack R. Greene, ''The Encyclopedia of Police Science'', 3rd edition, volume 1 (Routledge, 2007), 100, [https://books.google.com/books?id=HIE_zF1Rv7MC&pg=PA100& available online], accessed June 30, 2020</ref> A national police union would not be formed until the International Union of Police Association's creation in 1979. <ref>{{Cite book|last=DeLord|first=Ron|url=https://books.google.de/books?id=Td_cDQAAQBAJ&pg=PA12&lpg=PA12&dq=police+in+unions&source=bl&ots=YXqGMI8RcR&sig=ACfU3U3NaYY2yoY02qCUPHNHKGR9Z6vndw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiL5savvPPpAhWDCewKHUHfApAQ6AEwDXoECAkQAQ#v=onepage&q=police%20in%20unions&f=false|title=LAW ENFORCEMENT, POLICE UNIONS, AND THE FUTURE: Educating Police Management and Unions About the Challenges Ahead|last2=York|first2=Ron|date=2017-01-01|publisher=Charles C Thomas Publisher|isbn=978-0-398-09149-1|language=en}}</ref>


In 1935, the [[National Labor Relations Act of 1935|Wagner Act]] was passed by president Franklin D. Roosevelt, allowing private sector employees to collectively bargain. It wasn't until later in the 1960s that many US states changed laws allowing public employees, including police, the right to collective bargaining.<ref name=":1" /> By the 1970s police were unionized in every major US city.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Potter|first=Dr. Gary|date=|title=The History of Policing in US|url=https://plsonline.eku.edu/sites/plsonline.eku.edu/files/the-history-of-policing-in-us.pdf|url-status=live|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=|website=[[Eastern Kentucky University]]}}</ref>
In 1935, the [[National Labor Relations Act of 1935|Wagner Act]] was passed by president Franklin D. Roosevelt, allowing private sector employees to collectively bargain. It wasn't until later in the 1960s that many US states changed laws to allow [[Public-sector trade unions in the United States|public-sector employees the right to collective bargaining]].<ref name=":1" /> By the 1970s police were unionized in every major US city.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Potter|first=Dr. Gary|date=|title=The History of Policing in US|url=https://plsonline.eku.edu/sites/plsonline.eku.edu/files/the-history-of-policing-in-us.pdf|url-status=live|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=|website=[[Eastern Kentucky University]]}}</ref>


The longest continuously operating police union in the country is the [[Portland Police Association]] of Portland, Oregon, established in 1942.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Riski |first1=Tess |last2=Jacquiss |first2=Nigel |title=For Nearly 80 Years, the Portland Police Association Has Wielded Power in a Town That Doesn’t Like Cops. That Power Is Now Under Siege. |url=https://www.wweek.com/news/city/2020/06/24/for-nearly-80-years-the-portland-police-association-has-wielded-power-in-a-town-that-doesnt-like-cops-that-power-is-now-under-siege/ |website=Willamette Week |accessdate=25 June 2020}}</ref>
The longest continuously operating police union in the country is the [[Portland Police Association]] of Portland, Oregon, established in 1942.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Riski |first1=Tess |last2=Jacquiss |first2=Nigel |title=For Nearly 80 Years, the Portland Police Association Has Wielded Power in a Town That Doesn’t Like Cops. That Power Is Now Under Siege. |url=https://www.wweek.com/news/city/2020/06/24/for-nearly-80-years-the-portland-police-association-has-wielded-power-in-a-town-that-doesnt-like-cops-that-power-is-now-under-siege/ |website=Willamette Week |accessdate=25 June 2020}}</ref>

Revision as of 21:47, 30 June 2020

A police union is a trade union for police officers.

Police unions in Canada

The Canadian Police Association is a Canadian advocacy organization for police officers, with membership of over 60,000 police personnel serving in 160 police services across Canada.[1] There are 27 regional chapters at municipal, provincial, and federal levels.[2] These include the Toronto Police Association and the Vancouver Police Union.

A police strike in Montreal in October of 1969 led to the Murray-Hill riot, named for the company that held a monopoly on taxi traffic at the Dorval Airport, now the Montréal–Trudeau International Airport. Amid a background of ethnic tensions, six years of steady bombings of the Front de libération du Québec, rioting by separatists, a coincidental gangland war for control of the city, and a record high murder rate in the city, the Montreal Police Service called for a daylong "study session" at the Paul Sauvé Arena. They were joined by militant cab drivers, who chose the Murray-Hill building as a target. Two persons were killed, several injured, six banks were robbed, vandalism, looting and arson common, and millions of dollars of damage done during the 16-hour walkout. The police did not legally strike as a union. The contractual right to a "study session" as written into the provincial Code of Labor adopted in 1964 [fr], allowed for such a work stoppage, which is not technically considered a strike.[3][4]

Police unions in Germany

There are three police unions in German: the Trade Union of the Police (Gewerkschaft der Polizei), one of eight industrial affiliations of the German Confederation of Trade Unions (DGB); the Deutsche Polizeigewerkschaft, affiliated with the German Civil Service Federation; and the Bund Deutscher Kriminalbeamter, which is exclusively for members of the Kriminalpolizei.[citation needed]

Police unions in Sweden

The Police Union (Template:Lang-sv) is a trade union in Sweden. It has a membership of 18,500 (including police academy students), and is affiliated with the Swedish Confederation of Professional Employees, and EuroCOP. It also maintains contact with the Swedish branch of the International Police Association.

Police unions in the United States

Police are still highly unionized in the United States in the 21st century, in contrast to the declining union membership of other professions in both the public and private sectors. High union membership rates among police and other law enforcement officers significantly raise the average.[5]

The largest single police association is the national Fraternal Order of Police with some 330,000 members, although the FOP encompasses both union lodges and fraternal lodges.

The police labor movement is divided into two camps -- the independent police labor organizations and the police labor organizations affiliated with organized labor through the AFL-CIO or CtW. Approximately 80-85 percent of all police labor organizations would be classified as independent and have no affiliation with organized labor. There are no accurate reports on how many of the 800,000 sworn officers are members of a police union. The best estimate would be 75-80 percent; that would rank police officers with firefighters as having the highest unionization rates in the United States.[6]

The five cities in the U.S. with over 5,000 police officers[7] correspond with the five largest independent municipal labor unions by total membership: the Police Benevolent Association of the City of New York, Chicago Lodge #7 of the Fraternal Order of Police, the Los Angeles Police Protective League, Philadelphia Lodge #5 of the FOP, and the Houston Police Officers' Union.

History of police unionization

In 1892, the Police Benevolent Association of the City of New York (PBA) formed in New York City, originally as a fraternal organization.[8] Today it represents about 24,000 of the department's 36,000 officers.[9] Another 11,000 are represented by the Sergeants Benevolent Association.

In 1915, the first chapter of the Fraternal Order of Police was formed in Pittsburgh. As a national organization, some of its lodges are independent municipal unions, but the FOP is not a labor union nor affiliated with any. It remains open to all levels of law enforcement members, including management.[10]

In June 1919 the American Federation of Labor[note 1] began chartering local police organizations as affiliates. The first was the police force of Knoxville, Tennessee,[11] followed by cities such as Cincinnati, Washington DC, Los Angeles, St. Paul, Fort Worth, and Boston.[12][13]. By September it had granted charters to police unions in 37 cities, over the protests of city officials reluctant to allow unionized public employees, and the protests of existing union members resistant to admitting police to their ranks.[14] [15]

This set the stage for the catastrophic Boston Police Strike of 1919. The Boston force had informally organized since 1906 as the "Boston Social Club". They applied for an AFL charter, which was newly granted on August 15. The city and state, with shared oversight, both forbade this, and rejected a compromise. On September 9, some 72% of the police force refused to work. The city descended into four days and nights of lawlessness, with widespread property damage and nine killed outright, eight of them by members of the 5,000 Massachusetts State Guard ordered in by Governor Calvin Coolidge. More than 1000 officers were fired and replaced by the city at the higher salaries the union had struck for.[16] The event had a pronounced chilling effect on police unionization for decades. The Boston Police Patrolman's Association was formed 46 years later, in 1965, following a change in state law.[17] A national police union would not be formed until the International Union of Police Association's creation in 1979. [18]

In 1935, the Wagner Act was passed by president Franklin D. Roosevelt, allowing private sector employees to collectively bargain. It wasn't until later in the 1960s that many US states changed laws to allow public-sector employees the right to collective bargaining.[8] By the 1970s police were unionized in every major US city.[19]

The longest continuously operating police union in the country is the Portland Police Association of Portland, Oregon, established in 1942.[20]

Police associations and organized labor

Of those few police unions with affiliations with organized labor, the largest is the International Union of Police Associations, which chartered with the AFL–CIO in 1979. It has over 15,000 members.[21] Other union affiliates include the International Brotherhood of Police Officers, which is part of National Association of Government Employees (SEIU/CtW).

Sometimes described as a "union", the National Association of Police Organizations is solely a lobbying organization.[10]

Amid calls to remove police from the labor movement in 2020, member affiliates of the west coast King County Labor Council brought two motions to reform and / or expel the Seattle Police Officer Guild[22], the largest police union in the northwest. On June 8th, 2020 the Writers Guild of America, East called on the AFL-CIO to dismiss the IUPA.[23][24]

Lobbying and activism

In addition to collective bargaining, police unions engage in political advocacy around "law and order", crime legislation and legal protections for individual officers.[25] Efforts by the Department of Justice to regulate policing through consent decree, civilian oversight, and prosecution of police misconduct have been stalled or forbidden by police union contracts.[26] In 2014, the Fraternal Order of Police lobbied unsuccessfully for the continuation of Pentagon's 1033 program after it was discontinued by President Obama.[27] Between 1994 and 2020, over 55 police unions donated $1 million to different federal election campaigns.[28] In the same time period, over $87 million was spent by police unions on lobbying and elections on the local level.[29]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ In 1955 the AFL and CIO merged to form the AFL–CIO

References

  1. ^ "CPA Directory". CPA. nd. Retrieved December 27, 2017.
  2. ^ Pennell, Josh (February 6, 2014). "Legitimate fundraiser resembles phone scam". The Telegram. Retrieved March 21, 2017.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  3. ^ "Those "Study Sessions"". Montreal Gazette. 24 February 1967.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  4. ^ Sancton, Andrew; Studies, University of California, Berkeley Institute of Governmental; Studies, University of California, Berkeley Institute of International (1985-01-01). Governing the Island of Montreal: Language Differences and Metropolitan Politics. University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-04906-2.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  5. ^ "Union Members Summary". Bureau of Labor Statistics. Retrieved 2020-06-09.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  6. ^ DeLord, Ron; York, Ron (1 January 2017). Law Enforcement, Police Unions, and the Future. Charles C Thomas, Publisher, Limited. p. 179. ISBN 9780398091491. Retrieved 25 June 2020.
  7. ^ using FBI statistics dating from 2010: "Law Enforcement Officers Per Capita for Cities, Local Departments". Governing.com. Retrieved 27 June 2020.
  8. ^ a b "Laws enabling public-sector collective bargaining have not led to excessive public-sector pay". Economic Policy Institute. Retrieved 2020-06-10.
  9. ^ Rosenberg, Eli; Goldman, J. David (2 August 2016). "An Addition to de Blasio's Morning Coffee and Workout: Protesting Police Officers". New York Times. Retrieved 4 August 2016.
  10. ^ a b Greene, Jack R. (2007). The Encyclopedia of Police Science. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-0-415-97000-6.
  11. ^ Philip S. Foner, History of the Labor Movement, v.8, pg. 93
  12. ^ Williams, Kristian. Our Enemies in Blue. p. 122. ISBN 9780896087712.
  13. ^ Slater, "Labor and the Boston Police Strike of 1919," 243
  14. ^ Philip S. Foner, History of the Labor Movement, v.8, 93, 97
  15. ^ Slater, "Labor and the Boston Police Strike of 1919," 244
  16. ^ MacQuarrie, Brian (7 September 2019). "When the city was lawless: Recalling the Boston Police Strike of 1919". Boston Globe. Retrieved 30 June 2020.
  17. ^ Jack R. Greene, The Encyclopedia of Police Science, 3rd edition, volume 1 (Routledge, 2007), 100, available online, accessed June 30, 2020
  18. ^ DeLord, Ron; York, Ron (2017-01-01). LAW ENFORCEMENT, POLICE UNIONS, AND THE FUTURE: Educating Police Management and Unions About the Challenges Ahead. Charles C Thomas Publisher. ISBN 978-0-398-09149-1.
  19. ^ Potter, Dr. Gary. "The History of Policing in US" (PDF). Eastern Kentucky University.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  20. ^ Riski, Tess; Jacquiss, Nigel. "For Nearly 80 Years, the Portland Police Association Has Wielded Power in a Town That Doesn't Like Cops. That Power Is Now Under Siege". Willamette Week. Retrieved 25 June 2020.
  21. ^ Fernández Campbell, Alexia (5 June 2020). "As Protests Grow, Big Labor Sides with Police Unions". Public Integrity. Retrieved 26 June 2020.
  22. ^ Bradbury, Alexandra (2020-06-12). "Why a Local Labor Council Is Threatening to Expel the Seattle Police Guild". Labor Notes. Retrieved 2020-06-15.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  23. ^ Garza, Frida (2020-06-11). "'They don't belong': calls grow to oust police from US labor movement". Guardian News. Retrieved 2020-06-15.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  24. ^ Eidelson, Josh. "Bloomberg - Are you a robot?". Bloomberg News. Retrieved 2020-06-15. {{cite web}}: Cite uses generic title (help)CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  25. ^ Juris, Hervey A.; Feuille, Peter (1974). The Impact of Police Unions: Summary Report. U. S. Department of Justice, Law Enforcement Assistance Administration, National Institute of Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice [U.S.GovernmentPrint.Office].
  26. ^ Emmanuel, Adeshina. "How Union Contracts Shield Police Departments from DOJ Reforms". In These Times. Retrieved 2020-06-15.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  27. ^ Homan, Timothy R. (2020-06-13). "Police unions face lobbying fights at all levels of government". The Hill (newspaper). Retrieved 2020-06-15.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  28. ^ Haley, Grace; Karbal, Ian (2020-06-05). "Amid calls for police reform, new dataset shows where police money has flowed in Congress". Center for Responsive Politics. Retrieved 2020-06-15.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  29. ^ Perkins, Tom (2020-06-23). "Revealed: police unions spend millions to influence policy in biggest US cities". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2020-06-30.
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