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for Medicare. If an officer comes on at age 21 and reaches 30 years of service at age 51, I don’t believe he or she should have to stay an extra four years until they are Medicare eligible. They should be able to retire with medical care.
Some final thoughts regarding contract negotiations:
• We have briefed the Unit Reps about the outline of what we are looking for in the agreement. We will continue to keep the Unit Reps apprised as to the progress of the negotia-
tions.
• Although we cannot negotiate for retired officers, it is cer-
tainly my desire to try and help retired members who are paying exorbitant amounts for the City health insurance. This may be very tough to accomplish, but we will do ev- erything we can.
• When it comes to time off, I have once again asked the su- perintendent to be lenient on allowing officers to take time off and not stick to a 15-percent rule. I have asked that we be allowed to exceed that number and allow additional offi- cers to take time due.
Legal Defense
I want to bring to the attention of all our members the need to raise legal defense contributions. No one wants to see dues increase; however, during the past six months we are taking in about one-third of what we are paying out in attorneys’ fees.
Many of those cases have been on the docket for a few years and involve officers who are now retired. COPA, the organization now ostensibly investigating police misconduct, is re-opening in- vestigations from years ago, even when it seems obvious that the officer did nothing wrong. We have a responsibility at the FOP to give the best legal representation we can to our officers. And for the foreseeable future, we will have to spend more than we have in the past to defend our members.
Therefore, sometime in 2018 I will be asking the contri- bution for Legal Defense to increase from $2 per paycheck to $4 per paycheck. I do not want to do this. However, I be- lieve we must have funds available when court cases come up. I hope all our active members understand that we are in a new world of police oversight and we need to be prepared for it. Lodge 7 wins ruling on Disciplinary Matrix
On Nov. 13, Lodge 7 won a crucial ruling rejecting the City’s Disciplinary Matrix.
According to the ruling, the City violated the Illinois Labor Re- lations Act by failing to negotiate the new policy that would give the City broad authority to impose discipline according to a ma- trix of its own creation.
Lodge 7 argued that the policy violated the collective bargain- ing agreement because it was not negotiated with the FOP.
This is a great victory for our members. The City is obligated to negotiate with us. According to this ruling, they will now have to. We will fight every attempt by the City to make changes without negotiating first.”
In her ruling, Judge Anna Hamburg-Gal made the following points:
• The City is required to bargain in good faith concerning the its decision to create the CR Matrix and guidelines.
• The City is required to restore the status quo by rescinding the CR Matrix and guidelines and rescinding any disciplinary ac- tion imposed using the matrix and guidelines.
• The city is required to reassess the level of discipline to be im- posed using the informal penalty section/review process in existence before it implemented the matrix and guidelines.
• The City is required to make unit members whole for any loss- es they may have suffered as a result of the decision to use the matrix and guidelines to select a disciplinary penalty with interest at 7 percent per year. d
6 CHICAGO LODGE 7 ■ NOVEMBER 2017