Fraternal Order of Police Battles Decertification Election

The Teamsters Union lost the race to become the Metro Police officer’s bargaining representative by a close margin last September, and the Teamsters didn’t take the loss well.

Earlier this month, the union convinced enough police officers to sign a petition to force Metro to hold a decertification election.

But the FOP is trying to stop the election and filed suit against Metro for violating its contract. FOP legal counsel Brock Parks says Metro should have to fulfill the terms of the memorandum of understanding, which says the F-O-P has sole bargaining authority for Metro Police for three years.

“You have to have a period in a relation-in a labor relationship whereby the bargaining unit, the union, has the opportunity to be exclusive. Otherwise, anybody, all we would do is fend off decertification challenges and we would never be able to and we would never be able to focus on the business of our membership.”

Teamsters spokesman Jesse Case says the labor policies of Metro Government say otherwise.

“Metro has a separate policy in the decertification process so regardless of what the MOU says, there’s still a process to decertify the Fraternal Order of Police and that’s the process that the Metro Officers are exercising now.”

Later today the FOP will be in court seeking an injunction against Metro for the decertification process. For now, the decertification election is scheduled for Thursday.