Catherwood LibraryILR School

A Democratic proposal that would have given firefighters, police, and emergency services personnel nationwide the right to unionize and bargain collectively with their public sector employers was defeated yesterday by four votes. The measure---sponsored by Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle and the top-ranked democratic and republican senators on the Senate Labor Committee---would have overturned public sector labor laws in twenty-two or twenty-seven states, according to the president of the International Association of Firefighters and Republican senators, respectively. The IAF condemned Republicans for raising the spectre of police and fire strikes in the middle of terrorist attacks in order to defeat the measure, saying that such claims were inexcusable in light of the recent loss of hundreds of firefighters who died responding to the attacks on September 11.