Pregnant Detroit Police Officers Forced on Leave by Union Leaders

Suit: Pregnant Detroit police forced to take leave

The above is a headline of a story by Ed White, Associated Press Writer Dated Oct 14, 7:34 PM ET. When I read the headline I made mentally made some assumptions.

First, female police officers were forced to take leave by the City when pregnant.

Second, the City created and enforced these rules.

As usual the ACLU has gotten involved and for once I pretty much agree with the thrust of their suit but not the target of it.

The city of Detroit has it’s problems, it has made lots of mistakes but let’s be sure the city government is at fault before we damn them to hell and send out the ACLU to make their lives more difficult, a statement that seems to describe the job description of an ACLU lawyer.

Once upon a time in the City of Detroit pregnant officers were kept on duty and placed on jobs they could do as long as their doctor indicated the limited duty was safe for them. Generally these duties were clerical in nature.

Then along came another group who’s job description matches that of an ACLU lawyer, a Union Grievance handler. These people have only one function in life, make things bad for someone. And their job depends on filing more of these so they encourage the effort. After all, if there are less grievances there are less of these people needed. So their livelihood depends on seeing that people remain unhappy which is the foundation of the grievance process.

This processor found that officers hurt off the job were given leave and equated that to pregnancy which is a condition that is caused by off the job activity. They filed the suit. An arbitrator made a ruling that since both conditions were caused by off the job activity, both should be treated the same. The city had three choices. Break the law, follow the arbitrator’s ruling or file a costly appeal. The city took the wimp out and followed the ruling which was totally wrong but their action may have been financially prudent based on the cost of such appeals.

Let’s hope the ACLU’s suit somehow hits the real issue here, the ability of a union to force employers to do things that are wrong because they fit union mantra’s. Here is another reason to not elect B. Hussein Obama, he supports eliminating a secret ballot to have union representation and favors a card sign off. When the union gets enough cards, they win. They have the right to brow beat people to sign and let me be frank, I have been in a shop that was targeted, we were pressured and brow beaten to sign. They got enough cards that way to get an election but in the actual union “yes” vote less than half the number of cards signed. People bowed to the pressure and signed but voted their conscience.

And as for the reporter, I hope AP either provides some retraining or finds some other job for him quickly.

Other articles by Ralph Brandt

VA Tech – Aftermath Apr 26, 2007

Revenge Apr 25, 2007 12

The Freedom Fighter Apr 25, 2007

D-Day + Sixty Years Apr 25, 2007 0

Camp Michaux Apr 25, 2007

Discrimination – How to End the Insanity Apr 22, 2007

The Mantle of Leadership on Flight 93/shenksville Apr 2, 2007

Presidential Candidates and Religion Mar 26, 2007

The Judicial Pendulum Mar 26, 2007

What Happened to Us Labor Mar 26, 2007

The End of a World War Mar 26, 2007