Page 6 - November 2020

CATANZARA CONTINUED FROM PAGE 5
across the finish line with the same dedication and commitment he brings to every task and serving every member.
He definitely deserves kudos for this recognition that has been long overdue for our active and retired members. Believe me, you can’t fake that kind of passion. And I think it shows we will always fight for our veterans to make everything right. This amazing en- deavor that Rob has led confirms that.
It’s our rights
We feel validated by the recent decisions to strike down the abil- ity to file complaints anonymously and the likelihood of getting rid of the single option to have termination cases adjudicated by the Police Board. And this will expand going forward.
But we must make it clear that members need to appreciate the impact of these decisions. We have a lot of naysayers from within who say the FOP is not a real union, that we are just a bargaining organization.
In the wake of these decisions, I urge all members to look at these rights. These are not just words in the contract. People fought for decades to secure these rights for us. They thought things out and put these protections in place knowing that someday we would see the significance. Little by little, we are seeing their worth, see- ing why certain wording in the contract matters.
That is the same thing we are fighting for now. It may seem min- iscule, but we’re trying to think four or five steps down the road about what could come up for members that will be an issue.
This definitely strengthens our stance as far as the current con- tract negotiations with reference to discipline protection. What the City wanted is a big ask. I hope they realize now that they’re not going to get it. They’re not going to get it in negotiations. They’re not going to get it in arbitration. It’s time to move on and give us the financial package we deserve.
We have presented our last and best offer. If the City does not take it, we will go back to our counteroffer with all the conditions in it. Our effort to get the money in our members’ pockets is sim- ilar to the overall number they gave the firefighters. It’s structured differently to put more money on the front end of the contract rather than the back end.
Why does that matter? Our members have been subjected to the worst working conditions imaginable the past six months. This is a way to compensate them for what they have been through. If we can put an extra $3,000 in members’ pockets on average now, I think we will have done a good job. And then we can worry about everything else for the contract come July 1, 2021.
We are also sticking to no increase in healthcare contributions and no changes to retirement age. It’s more than a financial pack- age. It gives members the opportunity to know what their salary will be and know they can retire. Does it change going forward? We will fight like hell, so it doesn’t.
I hope members realize that it’s not just a financial package, not just an increase like the sergeants and the firefighters had to take. We’re doing better on a few fronts.
This is what a union does. We get our members what they de- serve, and our members have deserved this for a while. The City wants to hold the money part hostage for the rest of the contract, but we continue to say this is not a fair way to treat us. It’s a contra- diction to how they treated the sergeants. We want the same pro- cess the sergeants got.
I hope all the aldermen are paying attention. I can’t overstate it more than that. If they don’t do right by the women and men of the Chicago Police Department, we will change the makeup of the city council by 2023. We will unite the other unions and change the makeup of the council so it will not be a rubber stamp for the City. We will make sure they focus on what matters most to the City’s employees.
6 CHICAGO LODGE 7 ■ NOVEMBER 2020