APEX - A federal bill that would allow public safety officials the right to bargain collectively on pay, benefits and hours has found few friends among local governments in North Carolina.

That's no less true in western Wake County, where several towns have taken a stand against the legislation.

The most recent example came on June 1, when the Apex Town Council passed a resolution voicing its opposition to the Senate bill.

The resolution calls on Congress to respect towns' "right and responsibility to manage their own employee relations."

"It would put up a barrier between the good-faith negotiations of the town and its employees," Mayor Keith Weatherly of Apex said of the federal bill. "There's no reason to do things that way with the way our system is now. We're treating them in a fair and equitable manner."

The U.S. Senate has yet to vote on S. 3194, a bill that has found strong support among unions but has been opposed by state municipalities.

If approved, the legislation would overturn a 51-year-old law in North Carolina that forbids collective bargaining in the public sector.

Workers covered by the legislation would include prison guards, Highway Patrol troopers, sheriff's deputies, police officers, emergency responders and firefighters.

Supporters say collective bargaining would protect workers' rights and decrease turnover that comes with job dissatisfaction. "Honest, constructive negotiation is the way to get what you need," said Randy Hagler, vice president of the North Carolina lodge of the Fraternal Order of Police. He said there are nearly 20,000 law enforcement officers in the state.

Opponents, meanwhile, say the bill would, among other things, undermine morale and municipal autonomy by requiring specific working conditions for a specific class of employees.

In an April 14 letter, Cary Mayor Harold Weinbrecht urged North Carolina's congressional delegation to "respect the long-standing principle of non-interference in employer-employee relations.

"... We value our public safety employees, as we do all public sector employees," Weinbrecht wrote. "By singling out one class of municipal employees for additional protections ... this proposed legislation would also have the effect of undermining the morale of municipal employees as a whole by creating a separate class of employees with different rights and benefits."

Washington correspondent Barbara Barrett contributed to this report.