Weeks after union drops East St. Louis Police, Teamsters drop some other city employees
Weeks after the Fraternal Order of Police dropped East St. Louis officers from its rolls, another labor union has withdrawn its representation of the city’s jailers and records department employees.
Teamster Local 50 has filed a declaration of disinterest petition with the Illinois Labor Relations Board, meaning it will no longer represent East St. Louis jailers and one individual who works in the records room.
Kimberly Stevens, president of the Illinois Labor Relations Board confirmed she was aware of the petition and had issued an order to approve the union’s petition.
The union filed the petition on April 20. Patrick Nichols, president of Teamsters Local 50, said he had been negotiating with the city on a new Collective Bargaining Agreement on the employees’ behalf when he learned that the jailers had already voted to pursue representation with the FOP.
The “five or six” employees impacted by the decertification have not filed an appeal, Stevens said. Those employees had been working without a contract since their last one expired in December of 2012.
“I had been in contact with the city and working on getting some new collective bargaining agreements in place and I had met with a group of the jailers at City Hall in the jail and talked with them about the moves we were making and the upcoming meetings and trying to get raises and just get a new contract in place,” said Nichols, who had represented the East St. Louis employees since 2006. “Then I found out they were solicited by the FOP. Then the group itself took an internal vote to leave the Teamsters union, and they wanted to join the FOP.”
Nichols said the only alternative to dropping the East St. Louis employees was to file an unfair labor practice complaint against the FOP.
“(But) I am not going to spend my dues-paying members funds to pay legal expenses against a group that took an internal vote to get out of our union anyway,” he said. “If they didn’t want to be a part of Teamsters local 50 anymore, I wish them the best on where they go and where they end up.”
One place the affected employees won’t “end up” is the Fraternal Order of Police. In March, the Illinois Labor Relations Board signed off on a petition by the FOP to decertify East St. Louis Lodge 126, which represented all of the city’s sworn officers with a rank of sergeant and below.
The move came in the midst of a pay dispute that had been settled by a court-appointed arbitrator. Some members of Lodge 126 accused FOP representatives of making “back-door deals” and signing off on them without a vote of the membership.
Stevens signed off on the Teamsters petition, allowing Local 50 to step away from the duties of representation for the persons employed as clerical support staff in the fire, Tax Increment Finance, city manager, personnel, regulatory affairs, and finance departments.
Nichols said only the city’s jailers and one record room employee are affected.
He said Local 50 still has a good relationship with the city.
“We also represent the street department. That’s a good strong unit down there,” he said.
