El Paso City Council Union Busting
Last night one of the El Paso City Representatives debated the head of the policeman's union on local television. Like most cities in America, El Paso is facing some very difficult budget issues.
I am not a cop and have never been. In fact I resent the arrogance of some law enforcement personnel as much as the next guy. But when I am really in desperate trouble, I expect the police to show up promptly. And then to do their job professionally. I'm not a big union organizer either. For most of my career I served in upper management, and the trade unions were on the other side of most issues.
Representative Susie Byrd is articulate, and she has done a good job of representing the people in her district. I have nothing negative to say about her, and in fact give her a great deal of praise.
Due to the same type of budget problems, the city of El Paso got the policeman's union to give back some of it's pay and benefits package last year. The policemen went along and tried to help out the city last year. This year the city has come back to them again, asking them to re-open negotiations on their pay and benefits package again. This year the El Paso city leaders got greedy and started out by asking the police to give back far more than last year.
The municipal budget does not include the biggest and most wasteful item, which is schools. The city budget is still quite varied. It contains some absolutely essential items, and also many others which are indeed important but which sit well down the priority ladder.
Adequately funding the police and the fire departments is essential.
What I see going on is a clear cut case of some behind the scenes rich and powerful people whose ideology detests giving genuine power and a reasonable wage to the working man. Rather than doing the necessary and making severe cuts in other non-essential items, some people are using the budget crisis to try and bust the El Paso Texas Police Union. Just because they hate the idea of powerful employee trade unions.
The police department in El Paso, Texas is far better than the one in Juarez, Mexico. New Orleans has a terribly corrupt police department. Los Angeles keeps giving us YouTube scenes of the cops brutally beating up poor people with dark skin.
Don't screw this up. If it isn't broken then don't fix it. This contract with the police union is a legally binding contract. It is not unreasonable. The El Paso city leaders need to stop trying to reopen it just to make some radical, extremist anti-union ideological point. Stop this union busting. Just get to work, accept reality, and go find the missing money somewhere else.
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