Page 5 - FOP August 2021

CHICAGO LODGE 7
Official Magazine
President’s Report
FRATERNAL ORDER OF POLICE CHICAGO LODGE #7
EXECUTIVE BOARD
JOHN CATANZARA JR.
President
Michael Mette
First Vice President
Daniel D. Gorman
Second Vice President
Fernando Flores
Third Vice President
Rob Noceda
Recording Secretary
Jim Jakstavich
Financial Secretary
Dennis McGuire
Treasurer
Dean Angelo Sr.
Immediate Past President
Sergeants-at-Arms
Nenad Markovich Frank Quinn III Daniel Sheehan
Trustees
Harold Brown John Capparelli Pablo Claudio Frank J. DiMaria David DiSanti Mark P. Donahue Patrick Duckhorn Tim Fitzpatrick Dan Goetz Ken Hauser Tom Lonergan Brock Merck Steve Olsen Monica Ortiz Dan Quaid Ron Shogren Daniel G. Trevino
Field Representative
Andrew Cantore
A good contract...A fair contract (Phase One)
Both sides of the contract settlement have echoed through my office. Guys I came on with have said to me, “Don’t give them a goddamn inch.” And plenty of members have told us, “Get it done. Whatever it takes.”
Getting it done was the right thing to do for our members. They waited long enough. The City negotiating team said, “This is a fair deal. We’re good.” We said, “It’s a fair deal. We’re good.”
The mayor might have postured because she didn’t want to march to the beat of the Lodge 7 drum or the John Catanzara drum. But I think the aldermen put her feet to the fire by telling her, “This is a fair deal. Let’s get it done.” I’ve spoken to several of them who get it. They also concur that it’s a fair deal and our members deserve a contract.
The reality is it’s as good as a deal as we could get from the City. I am not expecting or obligating any member to vote yes to ratify it, because we’re presenting them with the deal. It’s the fairest deal we thought we thought we could get the city to agree to.
I hear from plenty of members who didn’t hesitate to tell me, “Screw the City. Let’s go to arbi- tration.”
Going to arbitration presents a different list of concerns. The reality is that most arbitrators like parity in municipal contracts. The reality that we’re going to postpone a 50 percent increase in healthcare contribution – which I know is one of the things that people are pushing back on because they feel we shouldn’t be getting any – would not come in arbitration. The sergeants got the full increase. The fire department got it. And the City would obviously demand it in arbitration.
In arbitration, the likelihood that we get duty availability in arbitration for the younger officers like we did would probably be out the window. Do we get another percent or two, or maybe even three in arbitration? Possibly. If we’re lucky.
So the thought was to get a fair overall raise. This is a two-phase situation where we address the major issues first. Phase one that we have come to terms on doesn’t even hit all the financial issues. There are more financial issues that will be addressed in phase two. There will be opportu- nity for more money to be added to an officer’s pocket in phase two with options like title codes and officers getting a little bump in pay to volunteer for training.
I get why people think we deserve more. And if the members want to shoot it down and take their chances with arbitration, that’s entirely their option. I’m not going to be insulted one way or the other. It was a lot of hard work to get to this finish line. A lot of people thought this was impos- sible. No way is the mayor ever going to negotiate with John Catanzara. Well yet, here we are. So I guess the impossible was done and we certainly didn’t sell out.
The biggest component, which is very hard to articulate because there are so many minute details, are the accountability issues that the mayor kept saying she needed. But we did not get rid of our discipline protections wholesale, as some people might suspect, for a deal or an agreement. We thought we addressed as much as we could in phase one, knowing that all the phase two issues are much more complicated.
No one’s saying this is the best deal ever by any stretch of the imagination. Again, we think it’s fair. The goal was to get something, not only a fair deal for everybody, but a little something for the younger officers along with a little something for the veteran officers. The veteran officers’ compo- nent sadly is going to have to wait until phase two. But we certainly haven’t given up on the efforts to try and get a healthcare option for 29 and a day so people will be able to walk away and retire.
We have also discussed lifting residency at 25 years. If you don’t want to give them the ability to retire, then lift residency at 25 years. Retention is an issue here. You have officers who want to leave. You need to figure out an incentive to keep them here. Let them go move onto the second part of their life. Go buy a house in the suburbs. If they’re still showing up to work, who gives a damn?
This is not about declaring victory. Even if it gets ratified here and with the City Council, it’s onto the next fight. It’s just the course of doing business at this Lodge. It’s our duty to get this done.
JOHN CATANZARA JR.
PRESIDENT’S REPORT CONTINUES ON PAGE 6
CHICAGO LODGE 7 ■ AUGUST 2021 5