Tell Senate to Act Now on Bargaining Rights for Public Safety Officers

With Congress back for a post election legislative session, CWA is geared up to move Senators and Representatives forward on our key issues.

A critical one: bargaining rights for public safety officers. Currently, just 25 states fully protect the right of state and local public safety officers to bargain.

A bill with bipartisan support, the Public Safety Employer-Employee Cooperation Act (S.1611), would change that.

The House passed the bill in July, attached to a spending bill, but Senate Republicans threatened to filibuster that entire spending package unless the bargaining rights language was stripped out. In the Senate, the bill has been stalled by filibuster abuse time and again, despite having six Republican co-sponsors.

CWA President Larry Cohen has said this legislation is likely our only opportunity to extend bargaining rights for workers this year.

CWA has put together a grassroots program to encourage members to contact key Senators to prevent a filibuster and to allow this bipartisan legislation to be brought to the floor for a yes or no vote, on the merits of the bill.

All CWAers are urge to take action. Read more about the campaign.

What can you do: Send a hand written letter to your Senators. To make sure it gets to your Senator's office on time, send your letter to Shane Larson, CWA Legislative Director, 501 Third Street, NW, Washington, DC 20001

And call your Senators at 202-224-3121 – that's the congressional switchboard number – to make your voice heard. Call every day and ask your friends and family to do the same.

CWA represents about 22,000 public safety officers, many in states with no collective bargaining rights.