FOP Lodge 7 to picket city hall Thursday 2 APR 09 when IOC members arrive to visit the city. Transportation will be provided. Click link for more info.
Transportation will be made available for all members who wish to attend this rally. All buses are scheduled to leave the listed locations on Thursday, April 2, 2009 at 9:30 am.
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Chicago Police officers will picket City Hall during International Olympic Committee visit
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15 comments:
How about the SGT's joining in. We need a show of solidarity here. This contract reflects every member across the board. Sergeants and Lieutenants. For once we need to be unified. All rank and file, not just PO's. The more that show, the better it looks. It's only an hour and a half. Let's show the city we are all upset.
As a member of FOP I intend on showing up. I can not speak for PB&PA. I would guess that the city did not pull its offer from the other bargaining units but the other units usually don't agree until after FOP settles.
I am a sgt and a PBPA member I will attend the picket this is important to all of us a large turnout will help the cause. The city is destroying the police department and although I have jst a couple of years left it is sad to see what this department has become. Please come out and support the police department.
This is real.
75 full duty coppers were coaching soccer today. They said they are doing it all summer. 3 per District.
Unreal
let's do this in force
To all the officers that signed up for the K9 and marine unit tests, please be advised that they have been cancelled until further notice
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K-9 test was 4 months ago. Nice try.... They are conducting interviews all this month.
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Oh ya. Why don't you ask the guy's that were scheduled for the interview. Right after the FOP picket was made public, every one was called and told that the interview process was cancelled. what does that tell you. ask someone you know that was suppose to have their interview on Friday what happened.
Also why don't you find someone who signed up for the Marine unit test. Ask them to try and find it on e-learning it's gone
swim test was suppose to start next week.
this all started right after the no confidence vote on Jody, you all got Daley pissed and everything was halted.
I/F you don't believe Me, do some leg work and call the Marine unit or K9 unit and find out for yourself with your own ears sonny.
ANOTHER REASON TO PICKET.
I've only got a year left and I mostly work on the inside, but I will be there, because what happens now will effect us all in the future.
Marine Unit test has been suspended with no date set for the swim test. It was scheduled for the 1st week in April. Kind of makes you wonder who's making the decisions with the city. All the officers spent money getting physicals to take the test, not to mention working out like crazy to prepare themselves for the rigors of the swim portion. Makes you wonder if they're gonna wait for some bosses kid to get the required years on before they offer it again. The cost to run the test is nothing, I repeat nothing to the city. The personnel conducting the test are already getting paid. You would be able to test the candidates and rank them and then call them off the list as needed. Makes sense? Not to the idiots that run the city.
I'm not great w/math, can someone help? Can we figure out how much on average costs have gone up in this city since our last raise? Does cost of living include everything, like food. Fuel. Property taxes. Vehicle costs. Education. Entertainment. Gas & electric. Health care and meds. Retail expenses. Travel. Compare that increase to what we make now and what the city is offering. Just to be able to show a simple number that explains how much behind the 8-ball Daley intends to put us? Short and sweet for a picket sign.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/sns-ap-canada-vancouver-gangs,0,6710478.story
It says it all!
go ahead and show, the issue is the public is NOT going to have much support for us, as they are lossing thier jobs in record numbers. Bad timing, the mayor will come out looking good in this one.
Bad message and bad timing
King Dick's 65th birthday is just around the corner (Fri 24 April.)
Employing creativity & unpredictability we JUST might sufficiently raise his ire-ish & B.P. to heretofore unseen Olympian levels, thereby encouraging Our Liege's early retirement from public office (and this mortal coil, the saints be willing!)
Like Faddah, like Son they say. Would C**nt Richelieu's brightly lit "elevator" go UP or dOwn from Floor 5? Who cares, but GO He MUST! So this Thursday, CITY-Us, ALLIED-Us, FORTIFIED-Us! Every Olympic IOC Itinerary Circle gets a SQUARE to Block, please Peter Marshall! Sooo JUMP AROUND! JUMP AROUND! Jump Up, Jump Up & Git Down(town!)
Get Silly, SILLY! Guffy, even!
Paint some of yer OWN SIGNS Up (& paint each other up while yer at it, sizzle-chests! F.L.O.P. it Out!)
CHAOS, Stage Right... Heathens to Purgatroids!
Why hasn't the Sergeant's Union made any statement or posted a letter of support?
I sent this e-mail to Chuck Goudie and Alderman Beale yesterday morning. So far, no response from either one of them.
From: McMahon351
To: ward09@cityofchicago.org
Sent: 4/10/2009 12:14:54 A.M. Central Daylight Time
Subj: To: Chuck Goudie and Anthony Beale
Someone just forwarded an e-mail to me with a link to a video of an I-Team Report: A Buried Treasure - 4/02/09 - Chicago News - abc7chicago.com by Chuck Goudie. This report interviews Anthony Beale, the 9th Ward Alderman from Chicago. Its subject discusses how the rank & file of Chicago’s Police and Fire Departments get issued a clothing allowance and duty availability pay somewhere to the tune of 4 to 5 thousand dollars a year. To paraphrase Alderman Beale, he feels this is excessive and should be taken away from these public servants to save the city money. He also claims there are no other places to cut city services to save money. I watched this blatant hypocrisy is disbelief and thought to myself, “This type of rhetoric doesn’t even dignify a response.” But I’m weak, so here ya go…..
Nothing could be further from the truth. Seeing that the roughly 18,000 men and woman of the Chicago Police and Fire Departments have been working without a raise or a current contract since 2007, the old worn out excuse that “we are currently in tough economic times” doesn’t hold any water any more. The economy was doing just fine back in 2007 and the Police and Fire Departments should have been given a contract with a raise back then, just like all of the other city departments did.
Of course everyone knows that an on time contract with a raise will never be a reality in Chicago because that would prevent Mayor Daley from earning millions of dollars in interest on the Policemen and Fireman’s money, and giving him the ability to eventually bribe them into accepting sub-standard raises with reduced benefits,……..with their own back pay. As is stands now, it would be fiscally irresponsible of the city to be fair with the Police and Fire Departments by giving them a timely contract. After all, who wouldn’t like access to all that interest free money to invest at their discretion and earn dividends for several years?
So where else can we save some more money in Chicago? That shouldn’t be too hard to do. Here’s a few suggestions we could start with;
• Eliminate 50% of the “top heavy” upper echelon jobs in ALL departments city wide.
• Reduce the astronomical maintenance costs of repairs and the destruction of millions of dollars in Police and Fire vehicles with all the out of control running of these rigs. Almost every Fire Apparatus in Chicago does about 15 runs a day responding to false alarms and non life threatening incidents. Without even factoring in the fuel costs for these responses, these vehicles come with a price tag of around $500,000 each and will only last a few years because they’re too big, too heavy, and not built for this kind of abuse. It would make perfect sense to have 2 men respond in a small $25,000 SUV or pickup truck to most of these EMS calls to scope them out first, and 95% of the time they wouldn’t even have to call for additional manpower.
• Make the abusers of these city services pay for this, not the taxpayers.
Now let’s compare 2 major American cities’ and see how much money we can save on our Aldermen;
The City of Chicago is approximately 228 square miles with a population of about 2,837,000 people. If the population of all areas were equal, this would give Chicago a population density of about 12,443 people per square mile. It is broken into 50 political Wards with an Alderman in each Ward, serving about 56,740 Constituents each.
With a base salary of over $110,000 and an expense account of $73,000, that puts them at about $183,000 per year without benefits or pension expenses. Not too bad for a part time job!
New York City is approximately 305 square miles with a population in all 5 Boroughs of about 8,275,000 people. If all of their areas were equal, this would give it a population density of about 27,131 people per square mile. It is broken into 51 political districts with a City Councilman in each one, serving about 162,255 Constituents each. They are earning somewhere around $112,000 per year, and in addition to that some also receive stipends with the highest one being somewhere around $28,000.
In square miles, New York City is a little more than one third larger than the City of Chicago is, it has almost 3 times the amount of people living there with over twice the population density, yet they manage to get by just fine with only 51 City Councilmen. What? Is this true? How can this be? Let’s look at this for a minute, shall we?
Here’s the numbers;
Chicago has 50 Wards, serving 56,740 people each, for a total of 2,837,000 people.
New York City has 51, serving 162,255 people each, for a total of 8,275,005 people.
These numbers are fairly accurate and I’d encourage anyone to verify them.
Now let’s look at this a different way;
If Chicago has 50 Wards, but has to serve 162,255 people for each Ward like New York City does, they could serve 8,112,750 people. But we don’t have anywhere near that many people, do we? No we don’t! So why don’t we just eliminate 32 of these part time Aldermen and let the remaining 18 serve 162,255 people each? That would total up to 2,920,590 people, which is much more like it. And I’m sure this is doable because Chicago ’s Aldermen get a substantially higher salary than their east coast counterparts do, and I don’t know of any City Councilman in New York City that has been worked to death yet,……..do you? I doubt it, but the worst that could possibly happen is our Aldermen might have to work a little closer to 40 hours a week like the rest of us.
In summary, Chicago’s Alderman are paid more than 2.5 times the salary for doing a part time job, than a Police Officer or Firefighter earns for working full time, under some of the most hazardous and deadly conditions imaginable. The truth of the matter is that we could very easily get by with 18 Aldermen, and eliminate 32 without ever missing them. Wow, that’s about 65% less Aldermen and nobody would die, nobody would be without city services, and I’ll bet that nobody would even notice. I’d like to see what would happen in Chicago if you eliminated 65% of the Police and Firemen. And at $183,000 per year, not including benefits and pension calculations, Chicago would save at least $5,856,000 annually on this simple budget cut alone. Oh look at that Alderman Beale, I found somewhere to cut some more “city services” without any negative results and don’t forget, “we ARE currently in tough economic times!”
And while I’m at it, here’s a few more facts;
While in the performance of their duty, I have never heard of any City Council member:
Saving anyone’s life
Prying anyone out of a wreck
Chasing an armed criminal down a dark alley
Working to total physical exhaustion
Running into, or on top of a burning building
Getting paralyzed
Getting 2nd and 3rd degree burns
Getting disfigured
Diving into the lake, river or lagoon at night…..in all seasons
Had someone die in their arms
Putting dead victims in body bags
Getting buried in a building collapse
Comfort an abused child
Catch a communicable disease
Being exposed to deadly carcinogens and other health hazards
Subjected to random drug and alcohol screening
Shot at, stabbed, spit on or assaulted
Getting killed in the line of duty
But I do know of thousands of Police and Fireman that have, and do all these things on a daily basis without hesitation, and all they’ve ever asked for is a little respect and a living wage to raise their families with. The average person couldn't, or wouldn't do these jobs effectively, and would never even consider putting themselves in harms way and risk their life for someone they don't even know, not for any amount of money.
Before anyone passes judgment on the members of the Chicago Police and Fire Departments, I’d challenge them to see if they could last one week alongside these dedicated men and women, and just stay with them, no matter what, and do what they are asked to do, in a moments notice! This challenge extends to every Citizen, Journalist, Alderman, or any other politician in the City of Chicago, including our Honorable Mayor, Richard J. Daley.
Jim McMahon
Retired Lieutenant
Chicago Fire Department
Well as of Friday the City put a new economic proposal on the table for FOP - 5% REDUCTION in pay - No shift Differential - No duty avail pay - 19 UNPAID furlough days - and a departmental re-organization plan to eliminate at least 1 district and several patrol positions. No layoffs just no hiring. Sounds like the "big show" is really payin off! Maybe the Sgts aren't as dumb as we thought?
The following paragraph is part of a comment left under the 03/27/09 “FOP Picket” segment on the “Second City Sarge” blog.
Well as of Friday the City put a new economic proposal on the table for FOP - 5% REDUCTION in pay - No shift Differential - No duty avail pay - 19 UNPAID furlough days - and a departmental re-organization plan to eliminate at least 1 district and several patrol positions. No layoffs just no hiring…………….
I view this as just another scare tactic being used against the Police Departments rank & file by a vindictive “little man” who is used to getting his own way. Afterall, you guys did march on City Hall when the Olympic Committee came into town. And you guys did yell “Daley sucks” and stuff like that. C’mon now, ya did didn’t ya? How dare you? How dare the unimportant indentured servants of the King do things like that? How dare you!?
Daley should know better than to “come between a dog and his bone,” but sure………how in the Hell could he? You gotta forget about the financial solvency of your families and open your minds and look at things the way that Daley looks at them through his eyes. Please indulge me for a few minutes and I’ll explain to you as best I can, “The World, according to Daley”;
Everyone is supposed to be nice to him, and not just most of the time, ALL the time, because that’s what he’s used to. If you think about it, ever since the moment he first opened his “wee little Irish eyes” as a baby, he has been surrounded by big strappin’ Policemen protecting his spoiled little elitist ass, while everyone else was telling him how cute and how wonderful he was all the time.
We can only imagine how great it must’ve been “growing up Daley” in Chicago. I’ll bet I’m not too far off the mark that it sounded kinda like; Daddy, Daddy………..…
make the Policeman take me to the park
make him push me on the swing…….higher……..higher!
make him buy me an ice cream
make the Fireman let me slide down the pole
make him let me blow the siren
make the Coach let me play
make them let me score
make the Teacher give me an ‘A’
make Johnny do my homework
make the “cast of Cats” sing Happy Birthday to me
I know, I know,……….I’m being a smart ass! And I know you got the picture now, but can ya just hear it?.......can ya see it?
To top this off I’ll also bet you a “dollar to a donut” (no pun intended) that when he was kid growing up in Bridgeport, that he never received the well deserved ‘ass whoopin’ everyone else got from the kid in the schoolyard for being a “dickhead,” because they were all pre-warned by their parents “not to touch Richie” so their Fathers could keep their city jobs. I doubt if any of the Daley women ever had to put a steak on any of their kids eyes, my Mom sure did her share of that. The long and short of this is………. if he grew up under the same rules that the rest of the “common folk” did, he’d have a lot more respect for them.
I wonder if that unconstitutional gun ban that turns honest law abiding citizens into felons in Chicago for arming themselves for self protection would be in effect if King Richie’s family wasn’t given the best bodyguards anyone could ask for………….and for free! Our Aldermen and other select individuals in this administration can carry a concealed weapon too. Why is that? Are they more important than us? Are they smarter than we are? Or are their lives and families just more valuable than ours are? I sure don’t think so,…….not for a second! I do know that I’d like to have a bunch of armed Chicago Coppers protecting my family 24/7 on the taxpayers nickel. What could be safer than that? I’d say that’s pretty tough to beat!
And if anyone thinks that all the City workers are overpaid and we should cut manpower in any of our departments, I’d like you to look at something. Here’s a website that you can go to and enter any City, County, or State employees name into and see how much they’re paid.
http://www.bettergov.org/Login.aspx?ReturnUrl=%2fResearch%2fEmployees.aspx
It only takes a few minutes to create an account and is very user friendly to navigate. I’m pretty confident that once you see how much the “chosen ones” in the upper echelon jobs make compared to the rest of us, you might have a different opinion on that. Just to name a few, you’ll notice that the Police and Fire Departments in Aurora, Naperville, and Westmont earn considerably more money than their brethren in Chicago do. How can THAT be possible you ask? The answer to that my Brothers and Sisters is quite simple, they’re treated with the dignity and respect that they deserve from the Mayors of their municipalities!
I’m certain that all of the City services are essential and for the most part do a fantastic job, but it’s my observation that the Police and Fire Departments have become the proverbial “sacrificial lambs” in Chicago. And the real irony of this is the fact that they are the ONLY 2 departments that always get their contracts and raises put on the back burner for years on end, and also the ONLY 2 departments that put their lives on the line each and every day that they go to work and are directly responsible for the life safety of the people in Chicago.
I’m not sure of this, but wouldn’t be a bit surprised if collectively, many of these people have worked more days in their careers under an expired contract, than they have under a current one. Go figure!
Jim McMahon
Retired Lieutenant
Chicago Fire Department
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