Page 34 - FOP Magazine August 2020

Making a Stand
Lodge 7 pushback against anti-police actions lets members know the union has their backs By Mitchell Krugel
Twelve-hour tours standing at a post without a break, eating a box lunch on an overturned shopping cart and having to pee in a, well, you know, became more palatable for Chicago Lodge 7 members with the 12-hour days union reps have been working to confront and grieve unreasonable and unfair working con- ditions. Swelling from frozen water bot- tles hurled at Chicago Police Officers has dissipated under the compress of their union president inciting the mayor to hurl childish insults at him.
As the physical and verbal attacks from protestors and politicians per- sist, evidence of shove coming to push- back continue to burst through the city. Holding the Department accountable for accurate timekeeping and fair com- pensation, calling out the safety risk of one radio for every four officers on the street, figuring out how to replace loss of
34 CHICAGO LODGE 7 ■ AUGUST 2020
personal protective equipment and gear trashed in beat cars burned by protestors and countless other incidents have ignit- ed operation pushback within the FOP.
And then, of course, there was the straw that broke out the pushback – or in this case the projectile that broke the sergeant’s eye socket – with the 52 offi- cers injured during that melee cloaked as a protest assaulting the Columbus stat- ue in Grant Park on July 17. The Lodge is countering the anarchy the City has aided and abetted by flexing its feet on the street where members have bene- fited from unprecedented support, un- leashing its labor relations rights to file grievances and President John Catanzara cranking up his we’re-not-gonna-take-it- anymore voice all the way to the White House.
“You cannot sit back. Whether it starts with the grievance process or it ends in
arbitration, it has to happen because that’s the only thing the City under- stands,” declares Jim Jakstavich, who as the Lodge 7 financial secretary spear- heads filing contract grievances against the Department. “There is dialogue. Things are being corrected. But safety, equipment and things officers are on the hook for, we are fighting that right now.”
Operation pushback is targeting, among other attacks, dispelling the sen- sationalized anti-police narrative swirl- ing through the news media, bringing at- tention to the destruction the protesting has wielded, the unfathomable number of shootings and homicides, and call- ing out the Department’s disregard for morale. And not letting the mayor push around the police, tell officers to stand down or establish a mindset that Cat- anzara continues to publicly decry as a complete failure.