Page 16 - FOP June 2019 Magazine

City continues with its unilateral (and unlawful) actions
As many readers of this column know, over the past several years, the Lodge has filed no fewer than five unfair labor practice charges with
the State Labor Relations Board. And yet the
misconduct was officially transferred from the Independent Po- lice Review Authority (IPRA) to the Civilian Office of Police Accountability (COPA), created by ordinance. The Lodge objected to its passage and raised many concerns, in- cluding the fact that no part of the newly implemented ordinance could supersede any provision of the parties’ collective bargaining agreement. The City repeatedly informed the Lodge that the City reaffirmed its commit- ment to comply with its obligations under the agreement and would follow all the terms of the agreement, as required by state statute. At the time, the Lodge made it clear that it reserved its right to object to any attempts by the City to circumvent its obligations under the terms of the agreement — any unilateral changes to any provision would be met with the appropriate le-
gal challenge.
Over time, and continuing to date, it has become clear that
the City’s implementation of the COPA ordinance has resulted in unilateral, mid-bargaining changes to mandatory subjects of bargaining established in the expired collective bargaining agreement. Specifically, the City’s implementation of COPA and subsequent COPA-led investigations are inconsistent with Arti- cle 6, concerning the Officers’ Bill of Rights; Article 8, concern- ing Employee Security; and Appendix L, concerning affidavits in Disciplinary Investigations. The City has made these changes without bargaining with the Lodge over their implementation or effects.
Equally disturbing is the fact that some of these changes di- rectly conflict with one of the prohibitions set forth in the con- sent decree, which a federal district court judge ultimately ap- proved on Jan. 31. Paragraph 711 explicitly states:
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City continues to disregard its obligations under both the State Labor Relations Act and,now,theconsentdecree.
FOP
LaborReport
In June 2016, the Lodge filed one of its first charges (dealing with the unilateral release of video footage), which went to a hearing in front of
an administrative law judge (ALJ) in January 2017. On March 12, the board issued an order holding “the case in abeyance pending the outcome of the parties’ negotiations for a successor collec- tive bargaining agreement.”
Subsequently, the Lodge filed two more charges in January 2017, in which another ALJ presided over separate hearings at the end of July 2017. These latter two charges (each dealing with the unilateral implementation of body-worn cameras and a new- ly implemented discipline matrix) resulted in recommended de- cisions and orders in favor of the Lodge — with a finding that the City violated the act, twice, by making such unilateral changes. Both of the underlying issues remain subjects of current bargain- ing, and negotiations remain ongoing.
A fourth charge, filed on Sept. 21, 2017, dealing with unilater- al modifications of several general orders relating to the use of force, is currently under investigation by the Labor Board. Unfor- tunately, this practice has not stopped.
The Lodge filed the most recent charge on Feb. 19, shortly af- ter approval of the consent decree. In September 2017, the con- duct of disciplinary and other investigations of alleged police
16 CHICAGO LODGE 7 ■ JUNE 2019