To All St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department Sergeants:

 

At the April 18th meeting of the Board of Police Commissioners, the Police Board made a finding that the bargaining unit for Sergeants proposed by the SLPOA was an appropriate bargaining unit with the minor modification of excluding as yet to be defined "confidential employees." Over the past seven months, the SLPOA has worked diligently toward Police Board agreement on a Sergeants bargaining unit. Now that we've accomplished that, Sergeants will have the opportunity within the next 45 days to cast their vote to select a bargaining agent. The SLPOA hopes to be elected as your bargaining agent. Here's why.

 

The SLPOA has a proven record of negotiating a strong collective bargaining agreement with the Board of Police Commissioners. The bargaining agreement for Police Officers & Probationary Police Officers was an historic first contract for commissioned employees of the department that features strong provisions like: binding grievance arbitration to settle disputes of contractual provisions; binding impasse arbitration to guarantee that a neutral arbitrator has the final say on disputes concerning contractual language for future contracts; fair share fees to ensure that those that don't join the union pay for the cost of negotiating the benefits that they enjoy through the contract; a successorship clause that means that any benefits you are promised in the contract must be honored by the city if city control becomes a reality; and, full-funding of the salary matrix for PO's & PPO's. We know that Sergeants were disappointed to learn that the pay matrix was not funded for their rank, but we are confident it would have had we been allowed to negotiate a contract for Sergeants sooner. Why?

 

Because the SLPOA is a professional union that has a staff of labor attorneys and a full-time business manager that have the ability to negotiate and ratify strong, enforceable bargaining agreements. The SLPOA has the staff and experience necessary to administer a contract and settle disputes with management about the terms of the agreement. The SLPOA's chief labor attorney, Sally Barker, is the very same attorney who successfully argued the case before the Missouri Supreme Court that affirmed, for the first time, the rights of police officers to engage in collective bargaining. The Missouri Fraternal Order of Police calls the bargaining agreement we negotiated for PO's & PPO's the strongest police contract in the state. As an affiliate lodge of the FOP, the world's largest police union, we have the strength of a national union and all its resources behind us in everything we do on our members' behalf.

 

The St. Louis Police Leadership Organization (PLO) has also filed a showing of interest with the Police Board seeking to represent Sergeants. There can be only one elected representative. While the PLO has its place in advocating for the interests of middle-management in the department, it has not successfully negotiated a union contract nor is the PLO affiliated with any union that has negotiated contracts, to our knowledge. The SLPOA fought for 43 years to secure the historic first bargaining agreement for PO's/PPO's.The PLO was nowhere to be found until the SLPOA kicked down the door on bargaining rights for the rank-and-file.Put simply, the SLPOA has a proven track record of effective bargaining; the PLO has none.

 

Being a union is about more than simply calling yourself a labor organization. It is about representing your members strongly and fairly. It is about the strength of standing united as employees to guarantee fair treatment by management. It is about making the right decisions for your members and exercising the political influence that comes from joining together as one.

 

The SLPOA used its strength and resources to successfully advance Sergeant's bargaining through the Police Board. The PLO jeopardized that by filing a lawsuit over Sergeant's bargaining that could have locked the process up in court for months or even years if the SLPOA hadn't convinced cooler heads to prevail.

 

Let's face it, Sergeants in this department are working cops. The leadership and goals of the PLO and the SLPOA are very different.The PLO is run by white shirts; the SLPOA is run by blue shirts. It's as simple as this: What color is your shirt?

 

Yours in unity,

 

The Executive Board of the SLPOA