UNIONS

[Sore Ears]

Are any of your comm centers represented by a union? Or has anyone tried to get organized?

My center does not have a union nor does my city. I did however work for another agency that did have a city union. I must warn you about getting into that union. The union is there to help the employees, but that being said all employees are not created equaly. If it is a city employee union it means everybody. I don't know the size of your center but I will just give you 50 people. Seems like alot but when you compare that to ALL of the other city workers that are out there it seems quite meager. How many of those employees work on a 24 hour basis. Not very many. Most of those employees have weekends off. So there issues will not really be the same as our issues. Just keep that in mind before you go wasting your money to be in a union that does not have your best interests at heart

Hollywood Communications is represented by a Union - AFSCME. Hollywood has 3 Unions.

1 - PBA for Police Officers
2 - IAFF for Fire Fighters
3 - AFSCME for EVERYONE ELSE

That's the problem. All of the other police employees are represented by a union that also represents secretaries, garbage collectors, public works, etc. Not that there is anything wrong with those positions. But none of them are 24 hr operations and they do not totally get the police thing.

From what I remember checking way back when, if you are NOT at all represented by any union, it is easier to get one than it is to change your current one.

Check PERC - Public Employees Relations Commission. They are the governing agency for unions. May be on the My Florida website, but I can't remember. Good luck

Does anybody have and expierence with starting up a union? We are not represented by anything and serve at the will of the city. They can not stop you from attempting to start a union? Would that not be classed as "union busting". Is there a union that is just taylored to dispatchers?

Did you find the answer to your question? Are you a member of FOP? If so inquire about the FOP Associates. If you aren't a member then get with your local FOP.
The FOP represent civilian members of law enforcement with the start of the Associates lodge.

City of Ft Myers Dispatchers were grandfathered into the PBA union years ago (as most of the tco's at that time were officers) Their contracts/benefits are negoiated along with the field officers. The only thing that is different is the retirement - they fall under civillian retirement of 30 years. They have gotten some perks over the years - step plans, shift differential, yearly physicals and union representation if the need should ever arise. The bad side to this is that the union reps usually are too close to the admin - so representation is not always "fair" as the officer representing you may someday want to take that Sgt or Lt's exam one day and they don't want to piss off admin...

The Lee County Sheriff's Office doesn't have a union for patrol or dispatchers.

The Cape Coral Police Department has the FOP but doesn't include the dispatchers - they fall under the general employees union - which as stated before, can include board members that have absolutley no idea what kind of issues effect tco's.

I don't have info on the other agency's in the area.

The agency I currently work for doesn't have a union and I really don't miss it - but then again, I have never needed the services of union representation in the 16 years I have been in the field. The agency makes up for it with benefits in my opinion.

The FOP in the Lee County area seems to really have thier stuff together, there have been lots of problems with the local chapter of the PBA.

They all have websites, if you want to contact them to see if they have a chapter in your area.