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Ruling On Deputies Union Is Right On The Money

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 5, 2007

The Florida Public Employees Relations Commission's recent dismissal of the deputies union unfair labor practices charge against Pasco County Sheriff Bob White is a victory for taxpayers and common sense.

Contrary to the beliefs of the Fraternal Order of Police, union members should not be allowed to conduct union business through sheriff's office e-mail or interoffice mail - even if it does pertain to ongoing collective bargaining between them and their employer. This should apply to all government worker unions as well. A public agency's communication and mail systems should only be used for official, in-house matters.

Public workers should keep their jobs and union business separate. They need to be fully focused on their work while on duty. This is what the public, taxpayers especially, expect and what union members are being paid for. They are not being paid to negotiate, or renegotiate, contracts or distribute union literature on public time.

Union members have plenty of opportunities to discuss and decide union matters, as well as distribute information, outside the work place and while they're off duty. This is why unions have lodges, offices, executives and lawyers, and union members also are free to use their personal computers to exchange correspondence.

Now it's up to the Public Employees Relations Commission to exercise the same type of common sense and reject the union's excessive request for "gap insurance" to cover deputies and their families from the time they retire from the agency until they become eligible for federal coverage.

This is an excessive perk that taxpayers should not be required to help subsidize. When a worker retires and leaves an agency, that should be the end of providing insurance.

Union employees should have to do what many in the private sector do - secure their own outside health insurance until federal plans kick in.

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