Something Rotten at the Lodge

A couple concerned members making us aware of shenanigans at the Lodge:

• Something’s going on over at 1412 W. Washington that members deserve to know about. At the last FOP general meeting, JCat introduced an organization called UCOPS, the United Coalition of Public Safety. On the surface, it was pitched as nothing more than a coalition of police groups working together nationally.But the way he kept slipping into talk about “his brand” made it sound less like union business and more like a pitch deck for his own startup.

  UCOPS’s own website displays the Chicago Police Department logo as one of its “members.” Not the FOP Lodge 7 logo, not our union, but the official insignia of the Department itself. This is no small distinction. The Chicago Police Department is not a labor union, nor can it legally be a member of one. The only explanation for this is that JCat knows he would be in violation of State and National FOP bylaws if he tried to present Lodge 7 as a UCOPS member, so instead, he has allowed CPD’s official logo to be misused to push his agenda.

  When asked directly at the meeting if he planned to abandon the FOP and form his own union, the President denied it. Yet his actions tell a different story. He has already aligned us with UCOPS, without membership approval, and now he’s pushing a vote next month to allow outside departments to join Lodge 7. This vote is nothing more than a power grab designed to grow his own empire; a stepping stone toward breaking away from the FOP and creating his own organization.

  This is a betrayal of the membership. We cannot belong to two unions at once, and affiliating with UCOPS while remaining under the FOP umbrella directly violates our bylaws. The members deserve honesty and transparency, not backroom maneuvering and half-truths.

  And let’s not forget the optics: the heads of the Chicago Police Department would likely be outraged to learn that their official logo is being used to advertise “membership” in a labor organization without authorization. That misuse alone should raise serious legal and ethical questions.

  The members of Lodge 7, and the public deserve to know the truth. Our union leadership is not being forthright. JCat is lying to members, making moves behind our backs, and trying to drag us into an organization we never voted to join, all while setting the stage to walk away from the FOP entirely.

We checked the UCOPS website and there's a CPD star on the website though we are 100% unaware of any CPD employees being affiliated with them....there's the FOP and the PBPA. Someone should probably notify Corp Counsel that there a CPD star - a trademark (copyright?) protected emblem if we recall (which is why we never used it) - appearing on a website that does no business with the Chicago Police Department.

Someone should also contact the National Lodge to let them know they might need to take some proactive legal steps here in town to preserve their presence.

JCat is supposedly unhappy with the blog, talking crap at the General Meeting and Unit Rep Meeting. He's going to be really unhappy in the run-up to the next General Meeting as we'll be posting weekly reminders that everyone who has a chance better be attending on 17 September at 1900 hours and vote down the By-Law proposals that would deny everyone National FOP membership and representation without a single debate or vote.