By Martin Bihn
AZCOPS General Counsel

Earlier this year, the Pima County Board of Supervisors voted to grant Meet and Confer bargaining rights to deputies. This vote was the result of nearly a year of hard work by the PCDSA. President Chris Rogers and the rest of the PCDSA leadership lobbied the Supervisors, got Sheriff Dupnik’s buy-in, attended Board meetings, and generally did everything to make Meet and Confer happen.

At the appointed date under the new ordinance, PCDSA circulated its recognition petition. PCDSA obtained the signatures of well over 30 percent of the deputies, submitted its petition and expected the County to set an election.

Instead of moving forward as planned, PCDSA received a letter from the County Manager advising: (1) that Sergeants were not in the bargaining unit, and (2) that PCDSA could not stand for election unless it revoked the membership of all of its sergeants, lieutenants, captains and commanders. This position, of course, was contrary to the ordinance and violated our members’ Constitutional right of free association.

AZCOPS Legal was brought in to sort out this mess. Immediately two things became very clear: (1) Sheriff Dupnik had no objection to the sergeants being part of bargaining and (2) this wrong-headed mess had the dirty fingerprints of the County Attorney’s Office all over it. 

The new mischief required quick action. AZCOPS Legal wrote the County and advised it that its position lacked basic legal merit and violated our members’ Constitutional rights. Further, AZCOPS gave the County 10 days to reverse its position or AZCOPS would file suit.

On the tenth day the County sent a lame letter refusing to back down. AZCOPS Legal filed a Special Action with an Order to Show Cause to compel the County to appear in Court and explain why it was violating its own ordinance.

What the County refused to understand was that its ordinance was written in a way that the bargaining unit actually contained all deputies and every other sworn officer below the rank of Sheriff! AZCOPS explained that if the County fought the issue PCDSA would: (1) win the case, (2) be awarded attorneys fees, and (3) PCDSA would end up bargaining for every sworn member of the Sheriff’s Office. Then the County got smart and shipped the case to outside counsel to review.

Within a week of the transfer, the case was resolved. The County agreed that: (1) it could not restrict PCDSA’s membership in any fashion, (2) it agreed that Sergeants could be in the bargaining unit and it agreed to submit an amendment to the Board of Supervisors to accomplish this, and (3) it agreed to hold an election for the bargaining agent as required under the ordinance. Mission accomplished, or so we thought until FOP briefly awoke from its hibernation!

            PCDSA ELECTION VICTORY AND THE DRUBBING OF FOP

The County worked with PCDSA to set up the election for bargaining representative. An election schedule was worked out with polling places, ballot boxes and elections monitors. Up to this point PCDSA had done all the heavy lifting, from getting Meet and Confer enacted, submitting signatures to trigger an election, bringing suit against the County to get the election, to working with the County to fully plan and staff the election. Only after everything was done, except for the actual vote, did FOP raise its feeble complaint, "Hey, no one told us about the election.”

And in its usual all talk, no action modus operandi, FOP promised a lawsuit to bring an injunction to stop the election because FOP never got notice. Never got notice?

It is true that neither PCDSA nor AZCOPS called up FOP to remind it to look after its own members’ interests. Remember the key thing about being a labor organization is to stay on top of current events. Reading the newspaper usually helps. Had FOP read the Tucson papers it would have seen the articles about meet and confer for Sheriff’s deputies. Another thing that helps is paying attention to ordinance changes that affect members. Had FOP bothered to read the ordinance it would have understood that it could also have obtained signatures and petitioned for recognition. But alas, FOP was asleep at the wheel.

FOP’s “notice” claim evaporated along with its lawsuit. So all that was left was for FOP to pout and try to play spoiler. Because the election representation choices were PCDSA or ‘no representation’, FOP began a campaign for deputies to vote ‘no representation’. And this shows FOP’s true colors. Instead of admitting it screwed up and recognizing that bargaining would benefit all Sheriff’s Office employees, FOP wanted to further its own selfish interest at the cost of all employees.

To that end one of the FOP leaders began circulating a “Vote no representation” email full of the usual FOP half-truths and factual errors. Unfortunately for FOP it still had not read the Meet and Confer Ordinance. The ordinance clearly and unequivocally required supervisors to remain neutral in any election. Because this was a serious issue, AZCOPS Legal responded to the email.

AZCOPS Legal faxed and emailed a letter to the FOP lieutenant who sent the email and sent a courtesy copy to the lieutenant’s boss. (Read the Letter to FOP) Within hours, the lieutenant was called in and told in no uncertain terms to cool his jets and follow the ordinance. And with that AZCOPS and PCDSA stamped out FOP’s last whimper.

The election went forward in a business-like and uneventful manner. When all votes were tallied, it was PCDSA in a landslide. PCDSA 102, No representation 7.

This just goes to show that the labor union business is never easy. It requires a united determination, a willingness to fight and a resolve to see things through. PCDSA and its membership has these characteristics in spades. Can’t wait to see how the County enjoys bargaining with us!