Fraternal Order of Police Chicago Lodge No7. v. The City of Chicago

2022 IL App (1st) 220346-U
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedNovember 4, 2022
Docket1-22-0346
StatusUnpublished

This text of 2022 IL App (1st) 220346-U (Fraternal Order of Police Chicago Lodge No7. v. The City of Chicago) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Court of Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Fraternal Order of Police Chicago Lodge No7. v. The City of Chicago, 2022 IL App (1st) 220346-U (Ill. Ct. App. 2022).

Opinion

2022 IL App (1st) 220346-U

SIXTH DIVISION November 4, 2022

No. 1-22-0346

NOTICE: This order was filed under Supreme Court Rule 23 and is not precedent except in the limited circumstances allowed under Rule 23(e)(1). ______________________________________________________________________________ IN THE APPELLATE COURT OF ILLINOIS FIRST DISTRICT ______________________________________________________________________________

FRATERNAL ORDER OF POLICE, CHICAGO LODGE ) NO. 7; JOHN CATANZARA JR.; POLICEMEN’S ) BENEVOLENT & PROTECTIVE ASS’N OF ILLINOIS, ) UNITS 156 A, B, C—SERGEANTS, LIEUTENANTS, ) CAPTAINS; JAMES CALVINO; MICHAEL STISCAK; ) Appeal from the and KEVIN CHAMBERS, ) Circuit Court of ) Cook County. Plaintiffs-Appellants, ) ) No. 21 CH 05276 v. ) ) The Honorable THE CITY OF CHICAGO; THE CHICAGO POLICE ) Raymond W. Mitchell, DEPARTMENT; LORI LIGHTFOOT, In Her Official ) Judge Presiding. Capacity as Mayor of the City of Chicago; and DAVID ) BROWN, In His Official Capacity as Superintendent of ) Police, ) ) Defendants-Appellees. )

PRESIDING JUSTICE MIKVA delivered the judgment of the court. Justices Oden Johnson and Tailor concurred in the judgment.

ORDER

¶1 Held: Where the unions failed to identify a violation of a well-defined and dominant public policy requiring the invalidation of an arbitration award in the City’ favor, the circuit court’s denial of their motion to vacate that award is affirmed.

¶2 This case stems from the City of Chicago (City)’s implementation of a policy, announced No. 1-22-0346

on August 25, 2021, requiring city employees to be vaccinated against COVID-19. This policy

extended to the sworn police officers who are members of the plaintiff labor organizations. The

parties involved were all subject to collective bargaining agreements (CBAs), and the plaintiffs

filed grievances before an arbitrator after the City refused to bargain to agreement or impasse about

the terms and effects of the City’s vaccination policy. The arbitrator found that the City was

authorized to unilaterally implement the policy under a management rights clause included in each

of the CBAs, and the circuit court denied the plaintiffs’ motion to vacate that arbitration award on

the basis that it was against public policy. On appeal, the plaintiffs argue they have identified

several well-defined and dominant public policies that require us to overturn the arbitrator’s award.

For the following reasons, we disagree, and affirm the judgment of the circuit court.

¶3 I. BACKGROUND

¶4 A. The Collective Bargaining Agreements

¶5 The plaintiffs in this case are the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge No. 7 (FOP)—a labor

organization and “the exclusive collective bargaining representative of all sworn personnel below

the rank of sergeant employed by the Chicago Police Department”; John Catanzara Jr.—the

president, principal executive officer, and a member of FOP; Policemen’s Benevolent and

Protective Association of Illinois, Units 156A (Sergeants), 156B (Lieutenants), and 156C

(Captains) (collectively, the PBPA)—a labor organization and “the exclusive collective bargaining

representative of all sworn personnel who hold the rank of Sergeant, Lieutenant, or Captain”;

James Calvino—the president, principal executive officer, and a member of PBPA Unit 156A;

Michael Stiscak—the president, principal executive officer, and a member of PBPA Unit 156B;

and Kevin Chambers—the president, principal executive officer, and a member of PBPA Unit

156C. We will refer to the plaintiffs collectively as the Unions.

-2- No. 1-22-0346

¶6 FOP and the City were parties to a CBA effective from July 1, 2012, to June 30, 2017.

Negotiations for a successor CBA began in October 2017 and the parties were still negotiating at

the time the Unions filed their grievances on October 14, November 8, and November 16, 2021.

Under section 28.2 of the CBA between FOP and the City, the CBA remains in effect during

negotiations until the parties reach a new agreement. The three PBPA units each have CBAs with

the City, all of which were effective July 1, 2016, and set to expire on June 30, 2022.

¶7 The parties’ arguments center on a few specific portions of these agreements. The

provisions relevant to this appeal are substantially similar in each document, and to avoid repetition

we will quote only from FOP’s CBA.

¶8 Article 4 of each of the CBAs is titled “Management Rights.” In the FOP CBA, article 4

provides:

“The Employer has and will continue to retain the right to operate and manage its

affairs in each and every respect. The rights reserved to the sole discretion of the Employer

shall include, but not be limited to, rights:

***

N. to add, delete or alter policies, procedures, rules and regulations.

Inherent managerial functions, prerogatives and policymaking rights, whether

listed above or not, which the Employer has not expressly restricted by a specific provision

of this Agreement are not in any way, directly or indirectly, subject to the grievance and

arbitration procedures contained herein, provided that no right is exercised contrary to or

inconsistent with other terms of this Agreement.”

¶9 Article 28 of each CBA is titled “Duration, Enforcement and Dispute Resolution,” and

section 28.3 of that article is titled “Impasse Resolution, Ratification and Enactment.” In the FOP

-3- No. 1-22-0346

CBA, section 28.3 provides:

“B. If complete agreement is not reached between the parties as to the items for

negotiation at the end of any negotiating period, the following procedure shall apply:

1. In the event that disputed terms cannot be resolved during the negotiation

period, all disputed items shall be referred to a three person Arbitration Board, one

member to be selected by each of the parties and the third member to be jointly

agreed upon by the parties.

11. As permitted by 5 ILCS 315/14(p), the impasse resolution procedure set

forth herein above shall govern in lieu of the statutory impasse resolution procedure

provided under 5 ILCS 315/14, except that the following portions of 315/14 shall

nevertheless apply; Subsections (h), (i), (k) and (m).”

¶ 10 B. The City’s COVID-19 Vaccination Policy

¶ 11 COVID-19 “is an infectious disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus” that spreads “from

an infected person’s mouth or nose in small liquid particles when they cough, sneeze speak sing

or breathe.” Coronavirus disease (COVID-19), World Health Organization,

who.int/health-topics/coronavirus (last visited Oct. 27, 2022). On August 25, 2021, the City

announced its intention to implement a policy that would require COVID-19 vaccinations for all

City employees, contractors, and vendors as of October 15, 2021. The City submitted the proposed

vaccination policy to the Unions for discussion, and negotiations over the policy were conducted

between the City and the Unions in August, September, and early October. According to the

Unions, at a meeting held on October 7, 2021, they responded to the City’s proposed vaccination

policy, and the City indicated it would review the Unions’ responses.

-4- No. 1-22-0346

¶ 12 On the following day, October 8, 2021, the City sent an email to all its employees stating

that they “must be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by October 15 unless they ha[d] received a

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

United Steelworkers v. Enterprise Wheel & Car Corp.
363 U.S. 593 (Supreme Court, 1960)
County of Cook v. Licensed Practical Nurses Ass'n
671 N.E.2d 787 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 1996)
Ill. Nurses Assoc. v. Bd. of Trustees of Univ.
741 N.E.2d 1014 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 2001)
Foley v. American Federation of State County & Municipal Employees
556 N.E.2d 581 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 1990)
Gantz v. McHenry County Sheriff'S Deptartment Merit Commission
694 N.E.2d 1078 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 1998)
International Association of Firefighters v. City of Springfield
883 N.E.2d 590 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 2008)
County of Cook v. Illinois Labor Relations Board
2017 IL App (1st) 153015 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 2017)
Village of North Riverside v. Illinois Labor Relations Board
2017 IL App (1st) 162251 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 2017)
City of Chicago v. Fraternal Order of Police, Chicago Lodge No. 7
2020 IL 124831 (Illinois Supreme Court, 2020)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
2022 IL App (1st) 220346-U, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/fraternal-order-of-police-chicago-lodge-no7-v-the-city-of-chicago-illappct-2022.