Police Labor Unions

[James Connolly]

Why don't Police labor unions don't go on strike during times of mass dissent? They could really do a lot of damage and have their demands met very quickly.

[ed miliband]

Why don't Police labor unions don't go on strike during times of mass dissent? They could really do a lot of damage and have their demands met very quickly.

i really couldn't give you an educated answer but i reckon it's a mixture legal reasons that prevent emergency service staff from striking (inc. firepeople and ambulance staff, and so on), and the kind of people that the police force attract.

[GiantMonkeyMan]

I imagine most people in the police feel that it's their 'duty' to crack down on any dissenters and not join them.

[Os Cangaceiros]

There weren't many things that Samuel Gompers got right, but one of the things he did get right was his refusal to allow cops into the worker's movement. If you want to see a really good example of why unionizing the repressive arm of the state is terrible, look no further than prison guard unions...prison guard unions, as a subset of public employee unions, are at the forefront of obstructing the closure of prisons.

Plus cops really have no worth to the economy, their only "value" is being the guardians of capital. But anyone can do that, give a badge and a gun to any thug and you've got yourself a cop. That's what happened when Boston's police force was fired en masse when they went on strike during the Coolidge administration.

[Mass Grave Aesthetics]

Usually the police force doesn´t even have a legal right to strike, or a very limited one if they do.

[Questionable]

Police are not creators of value like the proletarian and should not be considered part of the working class. Their relation to the bourgeoisie is different from ours.

[Jimmie Higgins]

Why don't Police labor unions don't go on strike during times of mass dissent? They could really do a lot of damage and have their demands met very quickly.Well in the US, police and prison guard unions are not really connected to working class struggle - on our side anyway. Police unions do not honor the picket lines of other workers - in fact it is often their job to enforce injunctions and physically break the strike and picket-lines if it comes to it.

They also tend to be well insulated from the pressures on the working class. More repression, less rights - these things hurt workers but make the lives of cops easier with less worry of a pesky video of them beating the shit out of a homeless person or black kid costing them their job! Police unions act not as a class struggle organization but as a lobbying and PR group with a legal arm strong enough that even a honest prosecutor (rare) would think twice about facing off against a police-lawyer in a brutality or corruption case.

In other ways cops are insulated from the working class. For example in Oakland while there has been a wage-freeze for teachers, Oakland cops (who largely live in white suburbs outside of the city) make a starting salary of $70L BEFORE benefits. So easily some cops are making 100K for beating up jobless youth in Oakland.

The relation of police to the working class is one of control. They are the modern slave-catchers.

[Comrade #138672]

Police are not creators of value like the proletarian and should not be considered part of the working class. Their relation to the bourgeoisie is different from ours.What about people not working because they have a chronic disease? You could say they do not create value either. But aren't they considered part of the proletariat, because they are on our side?

[Geiseric]

I think police unions have what Lenin called "Bourgeois consciousness in a workers movement."

However in Bolivia I believe, the police sided with the protesters against the military who were cracking down on a general strike.

It depends on the class that makes up the police force, and if they have a dominant working class/minority background or a petit bourgeois/white background. Their role in the first place is reactionary, but in times of crisis, who knows? It could be like Robocop :laugh:

[Sir Comradical]

Because for the most part they're pampered and well payed by working class standards.

[#FF0000]

What about people not working because they have a chronic disease? You could say they do not create value either. But aren't they considered part of the proletariat, because they are on our side?

That's definitely different. You are both wrong in your own special ways.

[Geiseric]

What about people not working because they have a chronic disease? You could say they do not create value either. But aren't they considered part of the proletariat, because they are on our side?

Police don't have a disease, the only work they do is making sure other people work. That doesn't create value.