H.R. 1505: Public Safety Employer-Employee Cooperation Act

H.R. 1505, the Public Safety Employer-Employee Cooperation Act, covers state and local law enforcement officers, firefighters and emergency medical workers, from EMTs and paramedics to other out-of-hospital first responders. It reaches every state, the District of Columbia and the U.S. territories.

The bill starts with a review, not a mandate. Within 180 days, the Federal Labor Relations Authority, the independent agency that already handles union matters for federal employees, must decide whether each state's law gives public safety workers five things: the right to form and join a union, recognition of a union chosen by a majority of workers with agreements put in writing, bargaining over wages, hours and working conditions, binding arbitration when talks deadlock, and enforcement through a state agency or court.

States that already provide those rights, or stronger ones, keep their own laws untouched. When a union and an employer both tell the agency their state's law measures up, the bill directs the agency to give that agreement as much weight as it practically can. Either side can challenge a determination in a federal appeals court within 60 days.

States that fall short get a deadline. The agency must write federal bargaining rules within one year, and they take effect on the later of two years after enactment or the end of the state's next regular legislative session, a window for lawmakers to fix their own law first. In a state that doesn't act, a federal agency would run union elections, settle bargaining disputes and hear unfair labor practice complaints for local police, fire and EMS departments.

A state can also land in between. If its law covers firefighters but not police, for example, the federal rules apply only to the groups left out.

Much stays in state hands. Right-to-work laws remain enforceable, so no one can be required to join or pay a union. States need not require bargaining over pensions, retirement or health benefits, can require a legislature to approve contracts, and can exempt towns with fewer than 5,000 residents or fewer than 25 full-time employees. Existing contracts and union certifications stay valid.

The bill also bars strikes, sickouts, slowdowns and lockouts that would measurably disrupt emergency services in order to force a contract, while leaving state laws on public safety strikes in place.