Memphis ‘Blue Flu’ action has no known leader, complicating the city’s response
By Daniel Connolly, The Commercial Appeal, Memphis, Tenn. | |
McClatchy-Tribune Information Services |
The "Blue Flu" is something different than the traditional labor strike. Hundreds of
As of Thursday morning, 505 police officers were out sick, down from a high of 557 Tuesday. Sixty-one fire department employees were out, down from 65 Wednesday.
The murky situation makes it difficult for the city to apply any of the techniques it could otherwise use to end a strike, such going to court to seek an injunction or punishing the strikers. Even negotiating is hard.
City Chief Administrative Officer
Little said he still doesn't know who's organizing the mass sickout, and that creates special problems. "To the extent that this is spontaneous or decentralized, how do you negotiate with those individuals? How do you speak to those individuals' concerns?"
The city might take legal action, arguing that the sickout violates a 1978 city ordinance that says any employee who participates in a strike automatically forfeits their job.
But Little asks the question -- what strike leader, exactly, would the city sue?
"We'd have to have a basis to proceed. You've got to have somebody saying 'Hey, let's sick out," Little said.
In some cases, courts can call witnesses to determine if an action is a true "wildcat strike" -- an action organized without the approval of the labor union -- or if the union or someone else was pulling the strings, said
A court can order public employees to go back to work. Leaders of a union that violated the court order could be charged with contempt of court and jailed, he said.
But here's a problem: State laws, not federal laws, cover this type of dispute. And unlike more heavily unionized states like
"In our region, only
Police strikes are rare and most states make them illegal, said Saltzman from
Some observers in
"Well, what are you going to do? Are you going to fire them all and then replace them? That would be very costly. Are you going to fine them all, dock their pay for a day? Are you going to challenge all of the sicknesses?"
Workers could claim that their sicknesses were real and challenge their firing through formal complaint known as a grievance. The city might find itself flooded with those claims, he said.
He said a far better way is to try to negotiate a settlement.
So far, that's the approach the city has taken. Little said law enforcement is functioning more or less normally and that the city will keep talking with the unions, even though the sickout is not an official union action. Efforts to reach the police and fire union presidents were unsuccessful Thursday morning.
Little also reiterated that the administration is open to ideas for fixing the city's financial problems.
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