Page 29 - FOP August 2019 Magazine

Bargaining Power
FOP emphasizes its position on negotiating a new contract
n BY MITCHELL KRUGEL
Chicago Lodge 7 members want that new collective bar- gaining agreement. They need the raise, better benefits and improved working conditions that hopefully come with the new deal. Working under an expired contract for more than two years has been wearing out the officers and detectives who are the backbone of the Department.
Be sure that the FOP leaders who are working on that con- tract know your pain. Taxes are rising all the time. The gaso- line tax alone has doubled in Illinois. And the Chicago Police Department rank and file hasn’t had a raise in more than two years.
Make no mistake, though. This message and more has been communicated to the City, the Department and its contingent negotiating the contract.
“I understand that members want the contract done yes-
terday,” Lodge 7 President Kevin Graham asserts. “I would say
that so far, we are about 50 percent of the way through the
items to be negotiated. But we have not reached a tentative
agreement on anything. The City wants more givebacks, and
much they got back from the FOP in the last contract.”
The FOP anticipated the pace of negotiations to be slow. Much of this forecast resulted from the presence of the for- mer mayor. The new mayor gives the City an added excuse to bottleneck talks, but that might not be so much of an issue be-
wages and benefits.
“I think it’s very important for officers to have changes in
the contract so they appeal their discipline,” D’Alba confirms. “We’re working along that line.”
President Graham has noted all along that this negotiation might wind up going to arbitration. Once the arbitration pro- cess begins, there will be no more opportunity to negotiate.
“One thing that needs to be explained is that before we go to arbitration, every item we have on the table needs to be ne- gotiated,” Graham details. “We are working our way through that.”
Looming over negotiations, however, is the consent decree that the Department and City are using to put in place reforms to govern police training and policies. According to Graham, under the consent decree, the City is required to make its good
we don’t believe they have a right to ask for anything after how
cause its negotiating team has pretty much remained intact. “There’s been a lot of discussion on significant issues,” re- ports Joel D’Alba, the attorney with the law firm of Asher, Git- tler and D’Alba who is leading the FOP in negotiations. “No agreements have been reached and there’s significant frustra- tion about that because it doesn’t satisfy officers who have an
economic need.”
But it’s not all gloom and doom from where D’Alba sits. “The positive thing I have is the City, in my opinion, will not
be able to make significant changes in the contract,” he con- tinues. “The changes they are seeking are too radical, and they have not justified the reasons to make those changes.”
Having D’Alba on the job to counsel the FOP Contract Committee continues to be one of Lodge 7’s most viable ne- gotiating assets. This is the attorney who helped negotiate the very first Lodge 7 collective bargaining agreement nearly 40 years ago.
He continues to maintain charts of five-year to 25-year sala- ry comparisons for cities similar to Chicago; economic analy- sis of each city; wage and benefit information; holiday and va- cation comparisons; contract provision comparisons to those cities; HMO copay and out-of-pocket healthcare expense comparisons; and data collected from FOIA requests sent to lawyers and law clerks across the country.
D’Alba confides that one objective at the top of the docket is creating a more equitable discipline system. Of course, pro- tecting the important provisions in the Bill of Rights section in the contract is also a priority. And that’s after securing fair
the conviction of another president when he notes that the FOP is fighting to make sure officers don’t have to hesitate to pull out their firearms when they feel their lives
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One of the consent decree-driven issues that keeps coming up is the “point and report” order to require officers to fill out a report any time they point their duty weapons. The FOP won’t allow this order to be put in place without properly negotiat- ing it.
This is the posture Lodge 7 is taking to protect members.
Graham evokes-
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faith effort to gain concessions from the FOP.
“The problem is what they are asking for is ridiculous and insulting,” he warns.
are in danger.
“The City would like to piecemeal the contract together and
cheat officers out of their monetary expectations, as well as their medical benefits and their protections,” he notes. “But you know what? We have plans to fight it.”
/D’Alba has seen one of the great attributes the FOP has to make sure that fight will be strong.
“They have some very smart people on their bargaining team,” he confirms. “They understand the issues, and they are
coming up with some very good ideas.”
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Graham indicates that those ideas are currently being pol-
ished into proposals that the team will share with unit reps to- ward the end of August or beginning of September. Following that, he and other Lodge leaders will be attending roll calls to answer questions and provide further information.
You can be sure that he will be emphasizing to members that the goal is to get a good contract rather than to get one as fast as possible. And he will deliver another important message on behalf of the FOP that is non-negotiable when it comes to a new collective bargaining agreement.
“I’ve made this statement in the media: ‘I will not give up our rights under the contract simply to suit a social agenda,’” Graham declares. “Other people have worked tirelessly for the union to get us benefits and protections in the contract. We fought for them and we need to protect them.”
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