Unions

Trade unions are defined by Webster's Dictionary as an “association of wage earners to further or maintain their rights and interests through collective bargaining with their employer.” Various attempts have been made at organizing police officers into such an association (i.e., welfare or benevolent associations) since the latter part of the 19th century. In the United States, these attempts have been restricted to the thousands of local jurisdictions and usually regard matters of employment, salary, or discipline.

One of the basic problems for police officers in their attempts to combine their voices to improve their condition has been their position as “guardians of the peace” and “protectors of society.” In the 20th century, police officers have seen their fellow workers improve their lot by bettering their working conditions and salaries through unionization. One of the first attempts to organize a union in a police department, in Cincinnati in 1918, evoked statements from the mayor, who made it clear that unions had no place in police departments because such a relationship was inherently incompatable with the discipline and work of the department.

Also during this time, a nationwide attack on any form of police unionization began, ranging from the Mayor of Jersey City, who questioned how police could serve two masters—organized labor and the people—to U.S. Senator Myers, who proposed denial of pay to any police officer who joined a union. The course of police unionization was inevitably altered by these events and the Boston Police Strike of 1919.

The events of this strike and its aftermath were to have a lasting effect on police unionization. Indeed, the principal legacy of this strike was described as the death of police unionization in the United States. Whereas other countries, especially the United Kingdom, moved toward some type of national union or federation for all of its police officers, trade unionism in U.S. policing was dead. In a 1944 report, the IACP saw fit to remind its members that police unionization would bring sweeping public resentment against the police because of this concept of divided allegiance. Again in 1958, the IACP felt it necessary to restate its position on the destructive nature of police unionization. Needless to say, the IACP, an association of police chiefs and upper management, saw, and still see, unionization as a threat to their supremacy in the policing pyramid.

Whereas the early history of police unionization was a series of repressive laws and policies by their “political masters,” the economic downturn in the 1960s was to be an unexpected boost to police unionization. The New York City Patrolman's Benevolent Association (PBA) was to be in the forefront of pushing its agenda for salaries and work rules. The PBA was one of the first unions to use political clout, campaign endorsements, and contributions to gain power in the mayoral and gubernatorial elections of 1964 and 1968. Their policies of confrontation and politicization of negotiations were to be copied by other associations, such as the Los Angeles Protective League and the Boston PBA.

These methods allowed the Boston PBA to receive legal recognition in 1964 by the Massachusetts legislature, over the objections of Boston city authorities. Indeed, the Boston PBA, with the memories of the disastrous strike of 1919, was not a proponent of striking. It was, however, in the vanguard of the development of rule book slowdowns and political demonstrations by off-duty officers, their wives, and their families.

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