Putting Illinois Public Unions Even Further Above the Law

Walter OlsonIf policing and public education are especially resistant to reform and oversight in the state of Illinois, one reason is an extraordinary state law that provides for union contract provisions to override the state ’s ordinary laws and regulations. In a report last year for the Illinois Policy Institute, Mailee Smith explained how this works to insulate police misconduct from correction:Hidden near the end of the Illinois Public Labor Relations Act, or IPLRA, is a provision entitled “Act Takes Precedence.” That section explicitly details that when a contract between a government unit – such as a police department – and a union is in conflict with any other law or regulation, the contract prevails.In other words, state law must cede to policies in a document that has been negotiated by an unelected, unaccountable third party.That includes any police reforms that run counter to provisions in a police union ’s contract.The city of Chicago ’s contract with the Fraternal Order of Police, Smith observes, includes provisions that “impede investigation of complaints [against officers], bias the investigations that do occur and create a veil of secrecy that keeps the public in the dark. ” It doesn’t matter whether some future Chicago city council or the state legislature itself tries to enact better rules on discipline; so long as ILPRA is on the books, the union contract prevails and the reforms may be void....
Source: Cato-at-liberty - Category: American Health Authors: Source Type: blogs