Ramsey Nixes Rep. Matthew Hill's IAFF/ AFL-CIO Firefighter Unionization Bill

Yep...Rep. Matthew Hill is documented as out to screw over Tennessee municipal taxpayers with his co-sponsoring of HB2035 Professional Fire Department Employees Negotiation Act. This legislative Judas Iscariot from the 7th House District in Washington County received his "thirty pieces of silver" in the form of a $2,000 campaign donation from the Johnson City Pro. Firefighters PAC, a political action committee front-group for the AFL-CIO labor union that fully funded the local PAC during the 2004 election cycle.

Senators exempt their own counties from firefighters
Nashville City
By John Rodgers, jrodgers@nashvillecitypaper.com
May 23, 2006

With the possibility of unionized fire departments oncoming, several state lawmakers are trying to keep their local governments from being burned.

At this point, 10 senators and one state House member have moved to exempt their counties from being affected by a bill that opponents say would hurt local governments in about 40 of the state’s 95 counties.

The bill, called the Professional Fire Department Employees Negotiation Act, allows a local fire department to elect an organization, or union, to represent it. Once a union is elected, the city employing those firefighters would then be required to negotiate with them.

Bargaining points in the negotiations between the firefighters organization and the city or county could include wages, insurance coverage, pensions and benefits.

[...]

TML officials have one supporter in [Senator] Ramsey, who said he would vote no.

“I do think this completely changes the way we do business in the state of Tennessee with public employees,” Ramsey said. “I’ve always opposed the unionization of public employees.

Click the title link above to read the full story at the Nashville City Paper.