Page 11 - January 2020 FOP Magazine

Field Representative’s Report
Police board on brink
of becoming a thing of the past
During the past several years, the Chicago Police Board has become nothing but a kangaroo court for City Hall to use to appease anti-police groups at the cost of our members.
Having to sit and watch as this City’s attorney rips apart good, honorable police officers’ careers is sickening. To see the hardships officers and their families go through to make ends meet and watch as spouses sit through a one-sided trial and hope for a fair verdict they don’t get — it leaves one re-
alizing that City Hall and the attorneys for the City are down- right evil.
It has become evident that the police board has to go. We already brought forward in negotiations a proposal to give of- ficers the option to go to an arbitrator in separation cases. The City had no interest in granting us arbitration. Likely because they know, just like we do, that it would shed light on COPA’s inability to investigate our officers fairly and take away power from City Hall.
Frustrated by watching the unfairness from the police board, Second Vice President Martin Preib and I determined that we needed to change the process and bring separation cases in a
fair arena, with real rules of evidence and a fair trier of facts. After setting our attorney the task of exploring our options, he determined that we should bring it to the Illinois Labor Re- lations Board for a declaratory ruling. This is based on the fact that under labor law, any dispute between an employee and
his or her employer is to be settled through arbitration. Although we have agreed to the police board in our contract, our attorney believes that based on prior rulings, we have op- tions to opt out of this since we are now in contract negotia-
tions.
We are also asking that the Illinois Labor Relations Board
make a declaratory ruling on the issue of having the option of grieving SPAR, as opposed to the unfair appeals process we have now.
Lastly, we are requesting a ruling to have binding arbitration in safety grievances.
A ruling in our favor would be a great victory for our mem- bers. This would force the City to deal with the safety concerns of our members, lead to fair rulings for our members in sep- arations and provide further proof of just how bad COPA’s in- vestigations are.
ROBERT BARTLETT
Knapp Medical Center
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CHICAGO LODGE 7 ■ JANUARY 2020 11