With the backing of union organizers at stake, Senator Harry Reid is quietly pushing for the nationalization of rules regarding every policeman, firefighter, and first responder in the country.
Touted as a "matter of national security", the benignly named Public Safety Employer-Employee Cooperation Act (H.R.413) would have all first responders represented by collective bargaining rules emanating from Washington D.C., and union supporters will benefit greatly from these national rules. This plan would replace state and local rules with federal rules on bargaining between governments and first responders. It would also empower the unions to dictate pay scales and benefits on a national level.
This means that local governments could no longer determine pay scales and benefits for its own employees, and shifts the allegiance of the police and firefighters to the national unions, rather than to the districts they serve. It would also severely limit the local government's ability to budget for payroll expenses.
It also means that the local governments would not be able to discipline or fire a first responder without going through the federal government and federal courts, authorities far removed from the local area and completely unfamiliar with the needs and interests of that local area.
It could also mean other far more sinister things. If a policeman doesn't have to answer to the local government, what is to make him enforce the local laws, that perhaps the federal government does not approve? And what would happen if the unions called for a nationwide strike?