Get a Load of This

Rahm is making a bunch of unheard of reforms:

• Chicago will trim more older trees, plant more new trees and bolster rodent-control services in response to a rat population surge, thanks to $3.2 million in new spending tied to Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s 2013 budget.
  
  
  By hiring the equivalent of 41 full-time employees, Emanuel hopes to respond to 20,000 additional tree-trimming requests, reducing a backlog that was 18 months long when he took office.
  
  
  “We are [still] behind. But, we have knocked that down dramatically ... We are less behind from what we inherited,” the mayor said.

That must be a "decrease in the increase" that McJerseyShore was talking about on the police side - nice to see Rahm is picking up the lingo. Or did Rahm pioneer it and McCopyCat is parroting the master?

• Laborer’s Union Local 1001 won the citywide tree-trimming competition by bidding $1.4 million, nearly half the $2.7 million bid by the cheapest private sector company.
  
  Local 1001 won the right to keep its forestry jobs — and gain 41 members — with help from a series of work-rule changes ironed out in May.
  
  
  The deal allowed newly hired Streets and Sanitation employees to be paid at an hourly rate of $20 — $13 lower than the current rate of pay — and be cross-trained in other jobs so they can be moved freely among those jobs based on the city’s needs.
  
  
  Instead of six months, those new hires now have a four-year probationary period. And instead of pre-negotiated pay hikes, they get raises based on hours worked.

The union "bid" for its work?  That's interesting.  And at a rate nearly 30% under other Laborers.  And a four-year probationary period.  And pay raises based on hours worked.  

Looks like Rahm got a bunch of indentured servants that he can mess with via bean counting, micro managing and work rule changes.  Better hope this isn't catching.

Contract Negotiations

We find it amusing (again) that the FOP and Fire Departments stand by their contentions that they won't negotiate in the press due to a "gentlemen's agreement" with the City. We again say such an agreement has power only when the people you are negotiating with are actually gentlemen.

We're pretty sure the teachers made similar noises in the past, yet all we recall from the past weekend are the anti-teacher ads littering the airwaves of both radio and television. You only have to scratch the surface to find connections to Rahm's political contributors.

The Tribune and Sun Times have behaved in what can only be described as slanted coverage. And their editorial pages? Even Mope-rah was beyond ridiculous the other day - her spine looks like a pretzel.

Now we're seeing a steady drumbeat of anti-police and anti-firefighter stories popping up in the Sun Times. Anyone else get the impression that these avenues are being pushed by the "gentlemen" across the table from us? As long as they have their lapdogs and proxies flinging crap at their request, the city can pretend their hands are clean while we fight a two-front war. And sorry to say, it looks like we'll fight it poorly.

Media Chugs More Rahm Kool-Aid

If you had a slam dunk case, if you were 100% in the right, if you had the backing of the law beyond even a shadow of a doubt, would you sit around and make noise about it or would you be in front of a judge to get your position enforced as soon as humanly possible?

And if you were among the more powerful politicians in the region, wouldn't you find yourself a tame judge, probably a judge you slated for election, and make sure that they ruled your way? After all, this is Chicago, Cook County, Illinois, right?

• There is a new state law in place that Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel says bans teachers from striking for anything other than compensation. Emanuel says the two issues remaining on the table have nothing to do with that, raising the question: is this a legal strike?

  Mayor Emanuel has repeatedly made the statement that the teachers union is conducting a strike of choice, and that teachers are striking over two items that are not subject to a job action under current Illinois law.

  Emanuel says the law states teachers may strike only because of compensation, and according to the mayor, neither of the disputed contract items involve pay or benefits.

Rahm throws this bullshit out there and Chuck Goudie is in line to guzzle it up and attempt to de-legitimize the Teachers' Strike. Here's where you know that Rahm is completely full of crap:

• Monday, the I-Team asked Mayor Emanuel whether he would order city attorneys to court, challenge the strike as illegal and ask that teachers be ordered back to work. A spokesperson for the mayor late Monday afternoon said, his "first priority -- as it has been all along -- is to have the negotiating team meeting with the union rather than meeting with a judge."

  Teachers union attorney Robert Bloch says some issues that are subject to collective bargaining are not shrinkable, but he reiterates teachers are currently within the law in what they are striking for.

  Mayor Emanuel continues to disagree. However, he seems intent on working this out at the table, not in the courtroom.

He disagrees out loud, but his actions belie someone who knows exactly what the law says and knows he hasn't got anything close to a valid standing in the courts.

Just because Rahm keeps saying it doesn't make it true, but Channel 7, along with the Sun Times, are publishing so much slanted crap already this week, it's sickening.

School Strike Stuff

We saw the Department Order the other day. Interesting to say the least:

• School Officers will start at 0600 hours instead of 0800; on post at 0630;
• Three officers will be assigned to any open high school; one officer per open grade school;
• Day Tact teams will be on mandatory 12 hour days;

There's some HQ deployment numbers, too. We also got this letter:

• Dear SCC,
  
  You might think that we would get to use our own school people in the districts to temporarily alleviate manpower shortages, right? Wrong! In (XXX) District, we're sending nearly a third of our officers to nearby districts to sit on their schools. Is this some sort of contract violation if they are bid officers?

We'd encourage anyone being sent out of their District of Assignment to contact the FOP as soon as you find out where you're headed. If the city is playing fast and loose with the contract again, they need to be called out.

This is probably what's causing the 12-hour-days:

• The Chicago police superintendent says he’ll be ready if police have to deal with the sudden exodus of students from the classroom to the street – in case there’s a strike.
  
  The Chicago Public Schools will have some schools open for half a day, if there’s a strike.
  
  And that in itself is an issue for Police Supt. Garry McCarthy.
  
  “We do have concerns and we’re working with CPS to ensure that rival gang members are not put into the same places,” McCarthy said.

We imagine the bangers aren't going to be in the alternative locations - they're going to be on the streets recruiting and settling old scores. But that's just a guess.

Stop Taking Time Off!!

You bastards better knock it off:

• Commander of 015 has hit a new low. Five people each were denied CU for both Fri and Sat on days. This is after the slips had already been signed by the XO. Commander just decided to deny the time, no reason in particular given, just you can't have your day off and slip returned by the watch commander.
  
  What's interesting is the note attached to the returned slips, (which is from the XO to the watch commander) says in part: problems arise when time is approved far in the future and the number of requests accrue over time. It needs to be the purview of the PRIMARY DSS, to monitor this and make appropriate adjustments...to ensure adequate coverage...on the watch.
  
  So, it needs to be the purview of the PRIMARY DSS, and the commander just comes along and denies time, even though I'm guessing all necessary beats would have been covered. (Otherwise the watch commander would have told us there might be a problem)
  
  Another order in the book reads in part: All requests for (time) must be submitted at least 7 days in advance. Requests submitted less than 7 days in advance will be rejected by the XO. This of course is being done for our convenience, so we can take advantage of the tour of duty exchange. Really?
  
  Everything going on in my life needs to be known 7 days in advance? Maybe I can get a job at the crystal ball unit.

Bad to worse in Austin. Maybe if someone pointed out that denying approved time off with less than 72-hours notice was a violation of the Contract and the General Orders, Barb would stop fucking up - not that that ever stopped her before in regard to illegal First Amendment investigations. Buckle up 015, the ride ain't getting any easier.

Contract is Now Expired

As of 5 minutes ago:

• The clock runs out on Chicago's Police Department and Fire Department union contracts Saturday night, but don't expect any difference in how cops and firefighters respond to emergencies around the city if the deal remains unresolved.

  Both unions are prohibited from striking, and it's not unusual for contract talks to drag on past the "drop dead" date as the two groups haggle with the city over salaries, incentives and contract minutiae.

  If history is any indicator, it could be years before a new contract is in place. Last time around, police and fire deals that expired in 2007 weren't replaced with new ones until 2010. Cops and firefighters worked under the terms of their old deals until new ones were worked out, and the same will happen this time when agreements aren't reached by Saturday night.

Then there's this nonsense that always pops up:

• Citing a "gentlemen's agreement" with the city not to negotiate in public, Fraternal Order of Police President Michael Shields declined to discuss the status of talks on a new deal.

"Gentlemen's Agreements" only work when one is negotiating with actual gentlemen. Persons who mail dead fish around, stab podiums and confront naked Congressmen in the shower arne't usually "gentlemen."

As in years past, Rahm will use the old Shortshanks trick of dropping friendly media types stories that can smear the cops, firefighters and teachers. He's already got a PR firm running attack ads against the teachers for even daring to hold a strike vote. And just last week, he had his tame Sun Times reporters running a story about firefighter "perks" that raised their pay - raises completely in line with other fire departments across the country and completely within the bounds of negotiated contracts.

No idea how that "28.1 story" is going to play in our negotiations though. We aren't feeling very good about it at the moment.

Section 28.1 Letter

We've gotten this something like 20 times in the past two days. Can someone explain it to us? (scroll through all 3 pages):



It would appear that all the rumors about the FOP dropping the ball on the timely notification are on the money. It would also appear that the City is looking at blowing us off for at least a year should circumstances make it possible for them to do so.

That could be good. It could also be very very bad, especially if Rahm wins at the negotiating table with every other union because he'll use their concessions to negotiate or force (via arbitration) some major changes to our Contract.

Firefighters Get Hammered

Rahm's stooges over at the Sun Times are doing their work well:

• The city of Chicago is paying fire department employees more than $80 million a year for perks that boosted their salaries by an average of more than $15,000 apiece last year, a Chicago Sun-Times analysis finds.

  The salary-boosting extras aren’t reflected in the online database of city workers’ pay that Mayor Rahm Emanuel created in what he described as an effort to provide greater transparency for taxpayers about how City Hall operates.

Transparency? You mean "data manipulation," right?

All of these things were duly negotiated by Rahm's predecessor's people. In most cases, these "perks" were given in lieu of pay raises so the City wasn't on the hook for the pension portion of the salary. It's a trick that allowed the city to pretend they were giving us (and the firefighters) a raise during the good years, but the large benefit went to the city because they didn't have to worry about the longer term money layout.

Of course, looking forward from this point, it appears obvious that the City has (and probably had) no intention of ever making the contractually mandated pension payments and Rahm's tools over at the Times are abetting his efforts to screw the Teachers, the CFD and you can bet, the Police once our turn comes up.

CFD Contract Fight

Hopefully, the FOP is taking notes, because we're going to get attacked the exact same way and we'll probably be able to blunt some of these attacks by expressing and maintaining solidarity with the firefighters:

• Chicago firefighters “do a great job,” but they’re not “immune from the change and reform” needed to solve the city’s financial crisis and deliver “greater value” to taxpayers, Mayor Rahm Emanuel said Wednesday.

  Tom Ryan, president of Chicago Firefighters Union Local 2, has characterized the cost-cutting contract concessions the mayor is seeking from firefighters when their contract expires June 30 as “horrendous,” “insulting” and “ridiculous.”

  Emanuel refused to respond in kind, nor would he discuss specifics of his proposal to target perks that, one union leader claimed, add $7,000 to the average firefighter’s annual paycheck.

A $7,000 pay cut? We don't know about anyone else, but that would put a severe hurt on our ability to maintain a household in Chicago. Unless we moved to Englewood.

Section 20.3 Grievance

It must be nice to just make an out-and-out declaration that portions of the Contract will be suspended during planned events without any explanation whatsoever. These are official legal documents and agreements that pretty much have the power of law, yet Tiny Dancer 9.5 can just piss all over them whenever the mood strikes him:

• The Fraternal Order of Police has not been shy about suggesting that Chicago Police officers should be compensated during upcoming contract talks for their performance during the NATO Summit.

  But now the union is being forced to play defense to ensure its members get their due under the existing collective bargaining agreement.

  The FOP has filed its fourth grievance tied to the summit, this one stemming from the city’s apparent decision not to give officers time-and-a-half overtime for working a sixth or seventh consecutive day in a week.

And of course, the other controversy rears its ugly head once again:

• ...

Oh wait, that part of the article has mysteriously disappeared without attribution regarding the "missed deadlines" and once again, quoting an unnamed administration source as "sticking it in the ear" of rank-and-file police officers along with only negotiating what has been described as affecting financial aspects of the Contract.

NATO - Time Versus Money

Once again, the city violates the Contract, blatantly, and expects us to just take it:

• The Lodge filed a class action grievance on behalf of all members who work overtime during the NATO summit and request to be credited with compensatory time instead of receiving a cash payment.

  The Department has printed new overtime slips (blue) that have already been completed with the “Money” box checked. Any member who wishes to be credited with compensatory time should cross out the money line and check the “Time” box on the slip. Members should keep anecdotal records of the denial of time for overtime.

  Section 20.2 of our contract is clear. Officer have the option of electing either time or money for any overtime that is worked. The NATO summit does not trump our contract. This is an attempt to defer the overtime costs of this summit to the Federal Government. Apparently, the City does not have the ability to defer the costs of time to the Feds.

Rahm is pretty much an asshole (who surrounds himself with assholes) and anything he does must be viewed in the worst possible light. He proves this day in and day out. Contract negotiations are going to be a bear.

Contract? Fuck Your Contract

Once again, Rahm and his toadies decide a police contract isn't worth the paper it's printed on:

• Heard today that the City is livid with the Lts union. The Union reminded the City that they can not detail Lts out of their area without paying them time and a half all day plus OT. City called bullshit and union put it on the table. City threw a shitfit and said screw it, they will do with only the tact and area team Lts. and not pay premium to the other Lts. One more screw up by the City

Evidently, the Lieutenants Association brought up the point that any watch lieutenants detailed to the NATO event would have to be paid for being out of their assigned districts. It's pretty much written down in black and white in the contracts, but Rahm doesn't have time for that shit. The union called them on it and now the tact lieutenants are about to have their responsibilities increased by a magnitude or so.

But all you day lieutenants reading this (and we know there are a few of you), you just dodged the NATO bullet. Now stick together and back your bargaining agent and show everyone else what it means to stick together. There's only 200 of so of you left.

FOP Responds

The FOP responded to the Sun Times story:

• No matter what you read in the Sun Times quoting “off the record” sources, there is no dispute between the FOP and the City regarding upcoming contract negotiations. Our agreement was timely re-opened on March 20, 2012, well within the time limits that apply for modifications that would improve your labor agreement, address the critical issue of manpower, the safety of the public and of police officers, increase your wages and improve officers’ welfare. Under the Illinois Public Labor Relations Act, 5 ILCS 315/7, a party to a collective bargaining agreement must terminate or modify the agreement by giving the other side notice of the intent to terminate or modify the agreement 60 days before the expiration date. Our contract expires June 30. Therefore, any notice before May 1 would have been timely notice. The IPLRA does not require us to give the City notice by March 1.

  However, the labor agreement, Section 28.1, is anything but clear and unambiguous. The agreement provides that “notice of termination” must be given by March 1, 2012. FOP never intended to send a notice of termination. Our labor agreement needs modifications, not termination.

On one hand, they seem to be seeking to alleviate fears. On the other, they seem to admit it's "anything but clear and unambiguous." And we all know how Rahm is going to have his lawyers interpret that.

Um, What's This?

Looks like Fran is trolling our comment section again:

• Chicago Police officers may have to wait until next year to negotiate a new contract with the city — and forgo a retroactive pay increase in 2012 — thanks to an embarrassing oversight by the new leadership of the Fraternal Order of Police, City Hall sources said Tuesday.

  Police and fire contracts are due to expire on June 30, but a little-known clause requires unions to notify the city between Feb. 1 and March 1 that they intend to terminate their contracts and commence negotiations on a new agreement. If they don’t serve notice during that time, the contract automatically rolls over for another year.

  City firefighters and unions representing police sergeants, lieutenants and captains notified the city within the required time frame.

  But City Hall contends FOP President Mike Shields missed the March 1 deadline, giving Mayor Rahm Emanuel an opening to either put off negotiations until June 30, 2013, or negotiate only those items that would cut taxpayer costs.

  A mayoral confidant emphasized that the city has not yet decided whether to “stick it in the ear” of rank-and-file police officers.

  “But we’re reserving the right to be selective in what we talk about because they blew it,” the source said.

"stick it in the ear?" How about a bit lower?

And if the deadline was missed, and since the FOP does all of the heavy lifting for the sergeants, lieutenants and captains, not to mention the firefighters, this can be characterized as a pretty big Grade-A fuck up.

One has wonder what the FOP is going to have to give up in order to make things right.

Missed Deadline?

A couple of comments popping up. Someone want to explain and then verify?

• I heard a rumor from a reliable source in iad that the genius legal minds at fop missed a critical deadline required by the contract (look it up).
  
  Anyone from fop care to comment? Can we sue our own lawyers for malpractice?
  
  
• Section 28.1 — Term of Agreement.
  This Agreement shall be effective from July 1, 2007 and shall remain in full force and effect until June 30, 2012. It shall continue in effect from year to year thereafter unless notice of termination is given, in writing, by certified mail, by
  either party no earlier than February 1, 2012 and no later than March 1, 2012. The notices referred to shall be considered to have been given as of the date shown on the postmark. Written notice may be tendered in person, in which case the date of notice shall be the written date of receipt. It is mutually agreed that the Articles and Sections shall constitute the Agreement between the parties for the period defined in this Section.

Someone want to address this? Have we just been backdoored by our own lawyers? Or is this much ado about nothing?

Credit Union Offer (UPDATE)

As pointed out by a number of our readers:


So the Credit Union, which is supposed to be working for the betterment of Chicago Patrol Officers, is actively abetting a circumvention of our contract that requires the City of Chicago to provide First Issue equipment in the case of required items. We guess they're taking a page from Rahm's book about not letting a crisis go to waste.

We hope anyone who participated in this farce realizes that they are assisting in the weakening of the Contract.

Time to vote with your money and start closing accounts.

UPDATE: Here's the link taken directly from the website.

It isn't a joke and we didn't make it up. Go look for yourself before they snatch it down. Our credit union is actively undermining our contractual protections.

Fair Warning

Lost in the shuffle is this little item taking effect 01 January:

• OT. Effective 01Jan2012. Alcohol testing will be part of the random drug test for PO's. Check appendix T of the current fop contract. Don't get jammed up

Breathalyzer tests will be given along with the "whiz quiz." A positive test will result in being relieved of duty without compensation. Return to duty is contingent upon a 0.0 reading. No discipline will be administered, but you will be placed in a "special pool" for six months of what can only be described as "closer observation." A second positive result means IAD gets involved.

Don't be the test case - you know they're looking for any excuse to trim manpower.

New Calendars Out

And of course, the Department has closed 5B and 5 Full furlough segments:

• Not too surprisingly Department Notice D11-14 was issued by the Department today without the Lodge being informed by the Management and Labor Affairs Section. This notice eliminates full 5th period and split 5B furlough selections for 2012.
  
  A class action grievance was immediately filed by the Lodge on behalf of any and all members affected by the Department's arbitrary actions.
  
  Any member who wishes to take a full 5th period furlough or split 5B furlough should indicate this on their 2012 furlough selection form.

If you want a 5B or 5 Full segment, bid for it. And expedited grievance process might just pay dividends. Look what happened to Rahm yesterday:

• A state labor relations board sided with the Chicago Teachers Union today, asking the state attorney general’s office to seek an injunction to keep more of Chicago public schools from lengthening their days.
  
  [...] The union’s legal victory, while not unexpected, seemed to rankle attorneys for CPS, who said the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board already had decided the case before the two sides presented oral arguments at a public hearing Thursday.
  
  “It appears to me that the labor board had made up its mind before we came here. I think that’s extremely distressing,” said James Franczek, lead attorney for CPS’ Board of Education.

The labor board didn't "[make] up its mind...." The labor board enforced existing rules to a mayor who seems to treat signed and negotiated contracts as so much toilet paper, and the fact remains that the G-8 and NATO summits are not emergency situations if they are planned months in advance and they are here at the invitation of city officials.

Contract Survey

The FOP is asking for input for the upcoming contract negotiations.

More likely than not, this is going to be the most important contract in our history. Protections must be defended and benefits must not be reduced. The City and Rahm are going to pull every trick in the book, invent some new ones and out-and-out lie in an effort to undermine the current agreement. Outside events are going to have an impact and we wouldn't bet against arbitration again.

So hop over to this link and let the FOP know what needs to be defended, what ought to be looked at and what should be a major concern, not only to you, but to your co-workers and to future coppers.

UPDATE: If you're having trouble getting to the survey, follow the FOP links in the right hand link bar.

Manpower "Adjustments" Begin

Word via e-mail that a few districts have begun redeploying manpower.

Supposedly, 013 has pulled people off days via seniority and sent them to First Watch on "90 day details." 004 is doing the same. The supposition is that we can move people off of Second Watch and nothing bad will happen.

We doubt any of them will see days in the near future.