Interest Arbitrations

Good morning Brothers and Sisters,

I am writing you this morning to update you on this weeks' arbitration hearings. For two days our general counsel and I went to battle for both the Officers' CBA and the Supervisors' CBA. There was extensive testimony by myself, a subject matter expert from Metro, and the State's witnesses. We are still not done, if you can believe it!!! Monday we will complete the arbitration virtually. There were some hiccups and some contentious moments, but ultimately we feel good about where we are at in the proceeding. I want to be very clear as to what the State is trying to push for in their offers. On both CBA's the state litereally wrote into their offer on compensation to give both officers and supervisors whatever the legislature gives you. That's right, they did not bargain at all and they want you to take whatever is given by the legislature to all state employees. If anyone rememembers before 2o21, that is exactly what we had before collective bargaining. This is not collective bargaining. This is bad faith bargaining at best. Supervisors pay attention: the wardens, associate wardens, and directors that you think have your back? Yeah they sit on the other side of the table, fighting against giving you what the officers currently get and other agencies give to their supervisors. What is that you might ask? The same holiday pay, the same retention payments, the same uniform allowance (they did not even include an amount for uniform allowance in their offer), and the same difference of pay that other agencies give to their supervisors (the spread). The spread that we are asking for is that Sgt's and Forensic Specialist 4's would make 20% more than Officers or Forensic Specialist 3's, and Lt's would make 20% more than Sgt's. Currently for anyone who's counting, the salary difference is 10.2% for Sgt's, 6.2% for Forensic Specialist 4's, and 9.2% for LT's. This is before taking holiday pay, uniform allowance, and retention payments into consideration, which clearly reduce that % even more. What else are they trying to take away form Officers and Supervisors? Muster pay of 45 minutes from every facility besides HDSP and SDCC. They say they will still pay "some" muster pay to all facilities, but we all know how that works. Eliminating the recruitment bonus from all facilities besides the rural areas (ESP and LCC) and reducing it to $1500. They are trying to take away the extra step that new hires get at 6 months. Trying to keep the supervisors from getting shift differential the same as officers.

What were our offers? Basically the Supervisors get the same as what Officers currently get and the 20% spread language. On the officers side, we sought to correct a few issues like those hired as CO's get the step increase at 6 months. We also proposed the same compensation in addition to 8% the first year and 8% the second year of the CBA. Everything else in the Officers CBA will remain unchanged. The only item in question is the compensation article. This has some positive and some negative impacts. Due to the fact that the state would not negotiate, we are not able to cure some of the issues we aimed to correct in other areas of the CBA. Those will have to wait until next time around or an MOU in between negotiations. With the schedule, we expect to have the decision by May 12th and will proceed with lobbying the legislature for the funding to be passed if we get the decision in our favor.

On a personal note I truly hope I make you all proud to have me as your President and Chief negotiator. I work tirelessly to fight for every last benefit that I can get for you all. I have an amazing team that supports me and there is no fucking way I could do any of this without their support. I want to take a moment to applaud each and every Board Member, Trustee, and Steward who has been there for me along this journey. I cherish each and every one of you as brother and sister. Please take a moment to thank all of the FOP team members at your local facilities when you get the chance.