The Rise of Mediocrity: What to Expect if All Police and Fire Employees are Unionized.

“Some men are born mediocre, some men achieve mediocrity, and some men have mediocrity thrust upon them”.

— Joseph Heller, Catch 22

Imagine, a police officer is off post, and found by a supervisor to be sleeping.  The incident is documented by the officer’s superior, and brought up on departmental charges and two years after the infraction the case is disposed of either by an arbitration hearing or a plea bargain.

Why two years?  It seems like an open and shut case. Well in the Memorandum of agreement between the Port Authority of NY & NJ and its police officer union all arbitration hearings from discipline to union grievances are issued a docket number and the cases are heard numerically base on the docket number. If there are ten union grievances docketed before a discipline matter is placed on the docket those ten grievances are arbitrated first. It is then in the interest of the union to file as many grievances as possible to stall the discipline process.

This is one of the many work rules and side agreements that has rewarded mediocrity and punished creativity.

As progressive as some benefits or work rules appear on paper in reality they create a system that diminishes operational flexibility and hinders management’s ability to control labor costs.

Emergency workers, police more so than others, are greatly influenced by peer pressure. Add to this mind set an inflexible contract and you end up with the un-intended consequence of mediocrity. Decisions are based on contractual considerations and not on how it will affect public safety.

These agreements make it almost impossible for a supervisor to reward a hard working officer who comes to work, does his or her job versus the officer who does as little work as possible and games the system. When the officer who is conscientious sees how the system works and how being creative and responsible is not rewarded, he or she lose their drive and ambition and accept the reality that going along with the dictates of the union leaders is the safe road to take.

If Congress passes the Public Safety Employer-Employee Cooperation Act that will allow all emergency workers to become closed union shops be prepared for mediocrity to be the norm not the exception.