Dear Mr. President,
I am writing on behalf of the members of the Fraternal Order of Police to respectfully request that you reconsider Section 2(a)(i) of your Executive Order entitled “Continuing the Reduction of the Federal Bureaucracy.” This provision has effectively dismantled the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS), which has provided vital services to labor relations since the late 1940s and has been especially valuable to law enforcement labor organizations like the Fraternal Order of Police.
The role of the FMCS has been so prominent that many public and private sector collective bargaining agreements contain provisions mandating that parties use the FMCS for arbitrator selection purposes. The FMCS serves as the nation’s largest clearinghouse of professional, neutral, highly educated, and well-trained arbitrators.
Arbitration selection is just one of several roles of the FMCS, which is used most frequently to provide parties with mediation services. Its mediators are highly trained, non-partisan labor experts, recruited by both management and labor, who meet with parties and identify paths to agreements on wages and benefits. These mediators have been crucial in eliminating or minimizing vital work stoppage disputes, labor disputes and bargaining deadlocks. The FMCS also provides training services for both arbitrators and mediators.
Law enforcement is just one area in the public sector realm where the FMCS has been essential. To demonstrate how instrumental the FMCS has been in law enforcement collective bargaining, I will refer to Illinois as an example. The Illinois Public Labor Relations Act [1] governs public sector collective bargaining in Illinois. With respect to law enforcement employees [2], they are not allowed to strike. So, when they reach an impasse during contract negotiations, they proceed to interest arbitration to resolve bargaining issues. However, before reaching interest arbitration, it is statutorily mandated that the parties mediate using the services of the FMCS. [3] If either party refuses to use the FMCS for mediation services, that party must pay the entire cost of mediation.
In the absence of the FMCS, the parties are left with no choice but to employ private mediators to assist in reaching an agreement—which comes at great expense. To demonstrate the enormity of this expense, I will refer to the Illinois FOP Labor Council. The IFOPLC is one of the largest law enforcement unions in the State of Illinois, representing approximately 12,000 law enforcement employees. These employees make up over 530 separate bargaining units, each with a separate collective bargaining agreement. The size of these units ranges from 3 to over 1000, with the majority comprised of 20 or less employees. Nearly all these units have interest arbitration rights and are subject to the statutory mandate of the mediation services of the FMCS as a precursor to arbitration.
Hiring a private mediator for over 500 units would be extremely costly. But more importantly, the inability to use the FMCS to resolve contract disputes will result in chaos and disrupt labor peace as the parties try to navigate bargaining disputes without the services of the skilled mediators of FMCS. The resulting acrimony and instability in the workplace will unnecessarily detract from the priorities of the men and women in law enforcement, which are to serve and protect our citizens and to provide for their families.
On behalf of the more than 377,000 members of the Fraternal Order of Police, I respectfully ask that you reconsider the provision in your Executive Order as it relates to the FMCS. We know you are a steadfast supporter of law enforcement and public safety, and we need your help to restore this critical service. Thank you as always for your leadership and consideration of our request. If I can provide any additional information about just how important the work of the FMCS is to law enforcement bargaining units, please do not hesitate to contact me or Executive Director Jim Pasco in our Washington office.
Sincerely,