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Months before the uproar over George Floyd's death in Minnesota rocked police forces across the U.S., President Donald Trump received a reelection endorsement from the International Union of Police Associations.

Every top Democrat currently running for this office has vilified the police and made criminals out to be victims," said Sam Cabral, president of the AFL-CIO-chartered organization. "They seem to take any union's support for granted."

That was in September. In March, with similar stridency, the American Federation of Teachers endorsed Democrat Joe Biden and blasted the Republican White House. An AFT resolution accused Education Secretary Betsy DeVos of making it her mission "to defund and destroy public education." AFT president Randi Weingarten is a longtime member of the Democratic National Committee.

Labor's allegiance might matter in November. More public employees belong to unions in the U.S. than do workers in the private sector.

Different unions become targets or allies of different elected officials depending on circumstance. Such dealings are complicated because politicians are the bosses and funders of government employees.

Trump has enjoyed vocal support from, among others, a police union leader in Minneapolis, whose members included ex-Officer Derek Chauvin, now facing murder charges in Floyd's death.

And last year, it was revealed that Trump urged his top border-security official to finalize a contract with the Border Patrol union, a political ally of Trump's. This contract boosted the number of union officers who can draw public pay without having to perform patrol duties.

As a result, the federal government now finances the equivalent of 74 full-time union positions, according to the Washington Post, and union officers are free to engage in partisan activity.

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This type of perk and alliance has been common in New York City and on Long Island regardless of party.

In blue-state New York, however, special arrangements sought and won by uniformed services in the past are drawing sharper scrutiny. This month, for instance, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo signed a repeal of the provision known as 50-a, which allowed law enforcement to shield its disciplinary records from public view.

Tension along similar lines developed between Michael Bloomberg, the city's most recent Republican mayor, and the United Federation of Teachers over discipline and instances of misconduct. At the time, political pressure on teachers over school performance was building around the nation, with critics demanding better testing and evaluation.

Now all eyes are on police practices.

Even Trump has bowed to the Floyd protests with an executive order that creates a federal database of police officers with a record of excessive force. Overall he's refused to link the issue of police abuse to race. Trump won't be relying on widespread African American support in the election; Biden will.

Rivalry between teacher unions and police unions, meanwhile, is not unheard of.

Six years ago, Patrick Lynch, president of the New York City Police Benevolent Association, condemned New York City UFT president Michael Mulgrew for co-sponsoring a rally with the Rev. Al Sharpton to protest Eric Garner's death during an arrest on Staten Island.

How would he like it," Lynch asked at the time, "if police officers lined up with the activists who oppose his efforts to shield bad teachers and undermine effective charter schools?

Read more from the original source:
Janison: Cop and teacher unions diverge on politics - Newsday