Page 5 - October 2019 FOP

CHICAGO LODGE 7
Official Magazine
President’s Report
FRATERNAL ORDER OF POLICE CHICAGO LODGE #7
EXECUTIVE BOARD
KEVIN GRAHAM
President
PATRICK J. MURRAY
First Vice President
Martin Preib
Second Vice President
Jay R. Ryan
Third Vice President
Greg Bella
Recording Secretary
Michael P. Garza
Financial Secretary
John Capparelli
Treasurer
Dean C. Angelo, Sr.
Immediate Past President
Sergeants-at-Arms
William Burns James Jakstavich Michael Mette
Trustees
Harold Brown Andrew Cantore Mark Donahue William Dougherty Pat Duckhorn Sergio Escobedo Fernando Flores Joseph Gentile Danny Gorman Ken Hauser Rick King Frank Quinn Carlos Salazar Ron Shogren Mark Tamlo Daniel Trevino Michael Underwood
Field Representatives
Robert Bartlett Rich Aguilar
We will not let the City take another swipe at us
We have heard that members have issues with the City’s new policy for making offi- cers swipe in and out. The FOP is baffled by this action as well. What is the reason for this policy? What is the value? None, as far as Lodge 7 is concerned.
We are always confounded when the City implements a policy unilaterally and doesn’t get input from our members, who are out there on the front lines, about how it affects their ability to do their jobs.
Further, the policy is not tied to payroll. The City has to remember that all our members are salaried employees. So the City does not save any money by having this policy in effect.
Our communication also emphasizes that we have had a policy in effect for many years that works well. It is not broken. For a variety of reasons, swiping in and out does not make a lot of sense, but here’s the one that resonates for all members:
We are police officers 24 hours a day and often not compensated for that time. As almost every officer in the department has done, we have assisted citizens on the way to work and on the way home. If we see somebody in distress or a crime in progress, we do our jobs because that is what we signed up for and what we believe we are paid to do.
At the end of September, Chicago Lodge 7 filed an unfair labor practice against the City because it failed to negotiate the effects of this policy on discipline. I have also asked for a meeting to assert our position. I have been told we will get a meeting with the mayor.
The first question we will ask is how this policy saves money. Nobody has told us how.
We believe that this policy is a way for the City to try and get every possible minute out of you. The City forgets that when we make an arrest, seeing it through can take us past the end of our shift. So you don’t swipe out until you’re done. The reality is that overtime is actually going to increase.
It is extremely frustrating for the City to make unilateral changes without our input, without ne- gotiations and without the history and perspective that goes along with those decisions. So we will be continuing this fight, including going to the Illinois Labor Relations Board.
With that said, let’s hit the contract update. As many of you already know, the sergeants, lieuten- ants and captains filed for arbitration. Media reports indicate they agreed to a six-year contract for a 10.5 percent total raise.
I think we need to keep a couple of facts in mind here: The supervisors have been working with- out a contract one year longer than we have. And 10.5 percent is not a great deal when considering the teachers are looking at a five-year deal for a 15 percent increase.
We also have to make sure the City does not forget that, prior to our contract expiring, our entire membership was not wearing body cameras. Very few officers were carrying tasers. These are just two things that have made a considerable change in our working conditions and further indication about how difficult the job has become.
The City also unilaterally implemented a new discipline matrix, which we filed an unfair labor practice against and won. The City also agreed to a consent decree, which involved changing our contract but was never negotiated. So one has to wonder whether they have been negotiating in good faith. We believe the City needs to pay the police more than other unions because our job is more dangerous and more difficult than many others in this city.
A reminder of how dangerous came on Sept. 21, when one of our officers from the fugitive ap- prehension team was shot while serving a warrant to a man suspected of shooting a woman. I was on my way to the office that morning to catch up on some work after visiting two other officers at Northwestern Hospital who were hit by a car.
First off, let me praise the people at Christ Hospital who did an outstanding job saving this of- ficer, who was bleeding out when he arrived. And the officers working with him saved his life by putting him in a car and getting him to the hospital after he had applied a tourniquet to his leg. We are grateful to so many people for helping to save this officer.
This is the danger we have to endure every day and the people of Chicago and the City need to understand this.
CHICAGO LODGE 7 ■ OCTOBER 2019 5
KEVIN GRAHAM