Page 36 - December 2019 FOP Magazine

Unfair Play The importance of the Unfair Labor
Practice charge for Lodge 7 members
n BY MITCHELL KRUGEL
Officers Her-
nandez and
Carter (not real
names) leave the
district discuss-
ing whether the
department’s
change in CR
guidelines has
put them at risk
for disciplinary
action. Getting
past that, they
deal with the
frustration of
why their body-
worn cameras
are not working
properly and
whether they are
responsible. And
they are about
to hit the street
hoping that the
traffic stops they make today will hold up to independent re- view.
No wonder rank-and-file Chicago Police Officers feel like Big Brother is always watching them. With an evil eye. And no won- der they feel like the City and Department seem like they are always changing the rules and not playing fair. Or treating them unfairly.
Chicago Lodge 7 often feels that way, too. Accordingly, the Lodge has filed multiple Unfair Labor Practice (ULP) charges during the past year against the Department over the imple- mentation of its complaint register (CR) matrix and guidelines, expanded use of body-worn cameras and a handful of other is- sues.
It’s the necessary measure the Chicago FOP must take to keep the Department and the City from making unilateral changes without bargaining with the Lodge over any impact or effect the changes have on bargaining unit employees’ terms and conditions of employment. A ULP can go a long way for the union to maintain protection for members under its collec- tive bargaining agreement and keep the City from trampling all over those rights.
“The Lodge needs to do this because it cannot let the City do what it wants,” states Pat Fioretto, an attorney for the labor relations law firm of Baum Sigman Auerbach & Neuman, LTD who has filed many successful ULPs on behalf of the Chicago FOP. “The City has to live by the rules, just like the Lodge has to live by the rules. The rules say you have to bargain these issues, and a ULP is how we can make the City live up to the terms of the contract and its obligations to comply with the state law.”
36 CHICAGO LODGE 7 ■ DECEMBER 2019
The days of the City doing what it wants go back to Mayor Daley – the first one – who never allowed Chica- go Police Offi- cers to bargain collectively for, well, anything. John Dineen, the inaugural pres- ident, and the Lodge 7 founding fathers secured bargaining rights from Mayor Jane Byrne, and since 1984 those have been protected under the Illi- nois Public La- bor Relations Act (IPLRA), which prohibits peace
officers from being able to strike.
With no ability to strike, the ULP becomes the union’s most
viable use of force. The IPLRA includes sections that reference certain violations employers commit and sections on what unions can do wrong. “But nine times out of 10, charges are filed against the employer,” Fioretto explains.
Employers typically violate the act under a series of events stemming from failing to meet their obligation to bargain with the union or provide information that the union has request- ed. Some members might recall the video release policy charge in which Lodge 7 filed a ULP alleging that the City unilaterally implemented the policy and posted approximately 300 videos of unit employees without having afforded the Lodge adequate notice or an opportunity to bargain.
“Ninety-five percent of the ULP charges are prohibitive prac- tice charges,” Fioretto clarifies. “That’s what we have done the past six or seven times the City has unilaterally implemented changes related to mandatory subjects of bargaining. Those typically include wages, hours and other terms and conditions of employment. All changes must be bargained before the em- ployer can implement them.”
Incidentally, the City unilaterally implementing changes has actually been further prohibited by the consent decree enact- ed approximately a year ago. According to a judge’s ruling, any changes the City has tried to make under the consent decree that impact mandatory subjects of bargaining have to proceed according to the standards of the state labor relations act and other statutory protections.
So if there is something that the City wants to pursue under