I Wish You The Best?

I hope you volunteers realize that this sit down strike may have you writing a check you may not be able to cover.

You see Oregon follows the Wagner Act which sets the policy of promoting collective bargaining in government and providing a statutory right to strike in the private sector only.

I will quote the intent of the act concerning governmental employees as written by Franklin Roosevelt to the president, National Federation of Federal Employees.

“Militant tactics have no place in the functions of any organization of Government employees…. A strike of public employees manifests nothing less than an intent on their part to prevent or obstruct the operations of Government until their demands are satisfied. Such action, looking towards the paralysis of Government by those who have sworn to support it, is unthinkable and intolerable.”

You volunteers also did not look at the fact that Oregon is an “at-will” employment State.

“Oregon courts have long followed this general rule of "at-will" employment. This means that generally, in the absence of a contract or statute to the contrary, Oregon employers may discharge an employee at any time and for any reason, or for no reason at all. Simpson v. Western Graphics, 293 Or 96, 99, 643 P2d 1276 (1982); Nees v. Hocks, 272 Or 210, 216, 536 P2d 512 (1975).”

So when you state in the paper that if the chief is let go you will not respond to calls, not only did I hear an employee treat an employer with utter disrespect in telling the employer how the employer is going to run the business.

Threatening that the employees will not respond to calls, if the employer refuses to abide by what the employee wants, which to me is known as blackmail.

I heard an employee try to take away a legal rights of an employer.

It is apparent to me that you volunteers did not get any planning training before taking an action.

Because all this action has done as I see it, is put your personal livelihood at risk from criminal and civil lawsuits.

So council your first goal might be to train these volunteers planning, organization and conflict resolution.

Now if I were a volunteer, I would stop worrying about the chief and start worry about myself, get back on the job and let the council deal with the chief in accordance to their rights as an employer. Then pick a chief from among the volunteers to recommend to council, until this council can work this mess out.

I would even propose to council to paying a volunteer what is left for salary in the budget, to be a chief if the right volunteer steps forward who can meet the approval of the State Fire Marshall.

If we do not have one then council is going to have to deal with that fact.

Because acting to strike before pre-negotiations, in a public hearing, with a neutral mediator and a recommendation of the mediator, all must occur before a public agency can strike.

But in the case of emergency services, unlike a teachers union with a pre-negotiations safety net to comply with the Wagner Act exemptions founded in the 70’s, you would not even be allowed this as you being emergency services cannot strike.

I ask you to think about what you are doing as you could be putting you and your families at risk the way I see it.

Trust me it may not be worth it for you to drag yourselves into this mess the way I see it.

Come to terms with the reality and let’s sit down and work it out.

Ask council to form a volunteers committee to address your needs.

Let’s do something though before this gets out of hand any more than it is.

I will support you in any way I can, as long as that support is an improvement of integrity, professionalism, financial, moral and ethical standards lacking in this departments management and in the best interest of the city and the volunteers alike.

Now I cannot tell you what to do.

You are all adults and can decide for yourselves.

But the way I see it you only have one option here.

Cody