Page 25 - January 2021

Raise Your Voice
Lodge 7 challenges members to increase their participation and speak up in 2021
n BY MITCHELL KRUGEL
Too many Lodge 7 members know the distant feeling that left Maurice Daniel disconnected. Working in 005 on the far South Side, officers seem to be a series of L transfers from the FOP, and the unit rep in the district recalls a time when he didn’t know how to get to the union hall.
Since becoming a unit rep this past summer as part of the rising tide of the new Lodge 7 administration, Daniel decided to not let his members wind up similarly lost. He ran into new and experienced officers alike who didn’t know where the Lodge was, let alone how much it helped members.
“When I first got involved, somebody brought me down to the FOP and I was like, ‘whoa,’” Daniel recalled. “I actually didn’t go to my first meeting until I was seven years on. But when you make a habit of going, it becomes part of you. We have to make more members aware how it behooves you to be involved in the union, especially if you are new on the job.”
Not only did Daniel find his way – to 1412 W. Washington Ave., where the nonstop work of the past eight months at FOP headquarters is poised to reap unprecedented success with an injection of member involvement – he is bent on helping others get there. To hell with the L, he will drive members there, and actually did so for one officer who had been on for 21 years, was about to retire and had never been to the Lodge.
“Veterans or new people, we all need to be involved for the good of the order and let our Department administration know we’re here and how we want to be treated,” Daniel continues. “If everybody gets more involved, they will also be more aware of their rights.”
Ratcheting up member involvement tops the Lodge 7 agenda for the coming year. Member participation, activation and ded- ication will turn the 2020 vision of improving working condi- tions, raising a unified and powerful voice to be heard in the city council and even Springfield and, yes, achieving the contract everybody deserves into the 2021 revelation.
At the very minimum, increasing member participation needs to establish a baseline of rank-and-file officers knowing the letter of their contract and the rights it provides. And there is an overwhelming reason to make getting involved personal.
“The contract,” confirms Carlo Rubino, a unit rep in 019. “That should be the headline. How much longer without a con- tract will it take for you to be an active member in your union, take your membership seriously and take an interest.”
Say it loud
A lot of no interest had run rampant among the membership. Many members shared the perspective Officer Nancy Vrentas described.
“I’m embarrassed to admit it, but even 18 years on, I didn’t really keep tabs of what’s going on with the union,” revealed Vrentas, who became a third watch rep in 017 this past summer.
Like many members, she had taken the posture of trusting the union was doing its job like people used to trust the gov- ernment was doing likewise. And like many members, Vrentas started paying attention during the Lodge election in Spring 2020.
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