City Council’s Committee on Workforce Development on Thursday approved a four-year police contract that includes a pay increase, but on a 10-5 vote rejected a provision in the contract that would move the more serious police disciplinary cases out from under the Chicago Police Board. The cases would instead go before an arbitrator, where police maintain they are more likely to receive an unbiased resolution to their cases.
The arbitration provision, one approved in the proposed contract by an independent arbitrator, is not dead. The issue could end up before a judge, and FOP President John Catanzara told committee members before yesterday's vote that the law is on the side of the cops.
“If you reject this proposal, and the Council then rejects it on Wednesday (when the full Council vote is scheduled), all you are doing is postponing the inevitable,” Catanzara said. “This is protected in labor law. It’s a fight you will not end up winning, and you are subjecting our members to needless torment.”
Three-fifths of Council, or 30 members, are needed to likewise reject arbitration. If it is rejected, the issue then goes back independent arbitrator Edwin Benn, who has said he would again rule in favor of it.
State labor law, moreover, is clear that the police have the right to arbitration.
In granting the change in disciplinary action earlier this year, Benn, citing Section 8 of the Illinois Public Labor Relations Act, said that the city “will need to show cause why the Lodge’s (FOP) offer should not be adopted.”
Section 8, covering grievance procedures, states: “The collective bargaining agreement negotiated between the employer and the exclusive representative shall contain a grievance resolution procedure which shall apply to all employees in the bargaining unit and shall provide for final and binding arbitration of disputes concerning the administration or interpretation of the agreement unless mutually agreed otherwise.”
The arbitration change would effectively end the relevance of the Police Board.
Max Caproni, the Board’s executive director, told the Chicago Tribune in October that “our expectation would be that very few, if any, of those cases would come to the Police Board if this change takes effect. Bottom line, I think about 90% of our docket, we would lose that, if this change took effect.”
The police have long sought arbitration, contending that cops can't get an unbiased resolution from the Board.
For an earlier story on the contract, former FOP Second Vice President Martin Preib, who spearheaded the move to bring in arbitration for more serious disciplinary cases, told Chicago City Wire that the Police Board, along with the Civilian Office of Police Accountability, have in too many instances employed leaks to the media to come down hard on police officers for minor infractions. They then follow-up with the excessive punishments, he said.
“Of all the things I worked on at the FOP, I am most proud of winning this right of arbitration for the members,” Preib said. “It was a long and difficult battle. Hopefully, this will go a long way in undermining the too-cozy relationship between the city's oversight agencies and the media in Chicago.”
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