FOP, Teamsters digging in for police union fight amid criminal probe

In the midst of a criminal investigation involving members of the local Teamsters union, the Fraternal Order of Police yesterday took a significant legal step toward reclaiming their place as the top union of Metro police officers, a title it lost to the Teamsters nearly 18 months ago.

However, the embattled Teamsters wasted no time in firing back, saying later in the day that it was prepared to re-run on a record of accomplishment that its representatives said already has come to outshine the record the FOP left after representing Metro officers for almost two decades.

Now, some two weeks after the arrest by TBI agents of former Metro Police officer and current Teamsters organizer Calvin Hullett — the main suspect in an alleged plot to bug an FOP outpost — both unions appear to be digging in for what could be a pitched battle over the rights to represent roughly 1,180 sworn Metro Police officers.

And in a sign of the stakes involved, FOP local Lodge 5 President Danny Hale — who on Tuesday delivered to the Metro Human Resources Department the petition signatures necessary to force Metro to hold a decertification vote for the Teamsters — was joined by FOP National President Chuck Canterbury and State Lodge President Brian Moran when he addressed reporters afterward.

Canterbury said the union’s push to regain the support of Metro officers was as much about giving line officers a chance to disassociate themselves with a local union now involved in criminal investigation as it was to provide them with the kind of representation that non-police unions such as the Teamsters are ill-equipped to do.

“One of the things that non-police unions have always done in their campaigns to organize is talk about striking and concerted work efforts to bring a city to its knees,” Canterbury said. “But we’re police officers. We’re sworn to protect the citizens of the communities that we work in. That is just not something we would do. And when our members nationwide see a group either condone or allow illegal activity, they know that’s not a group that can properly represent them in a system that is based on justice and that we’re sworn to protect.”

Teamsters Local 327 President Jimmy Neal did not return phone calls seeking comment, but 327’s attorney, Jack Byrd, gathered reporters at his law office Tuesday afternoon to counter the FOP’s claims that the Teamsters should be concerned for their future ability to bargain on behalf of Nashville police.

“We’re going to continue to do what we’ve been doing, which is taking care of the police officers,” Byrd said. “There have been improvements in the working environment for Metro officers. We recently kept their step [pay] increases in place. The FOP was in here for 15 years and got no improvements. At least the Teamsters have been trying to get things done.”

FOP officials, however, said they believe the Teamsters have failed to deliver on enough campaign promises to warrant a big enough sway of the vote.

“They promised them a new pension and it’s not here. They promised them collective bargaining it’s not here. They promised them a new chief and I think if you walk up on the third floor you’ll find the same one sitting there,” Lodge 5 President Hale said.

Despite the allegations facing Teamster officials — only Hullett has been accused of any criminal wrongdoing at this point — Byrd said he was “pretty confident” the Teamsters would prevail after the vote.

“We’re going to get the message out about what’s been done and what hasn’t been done in the past and let the officers make their decisions,” Byrd said. “Look at what we’ve been able to do in a year-and-a-half compared to what you got in the previous 15.”

While Canterbury acknowledged that the union’s loss here was a wake-up call to its state and national leadership, he expressed confidence in regaining the right to represent Metro officers. He said that, on a symbolic level, it was important for the national union that is now based in Nashville to play a role in representing Nashville police.

“We never lost [local] members as a result of [losing to the Teamsters]… Most people ended up doing a dual membership,” he said. “But our national headquarters is in this city. And we picked this city because it’s one of the best cities in America to do business in.”

Hale expressed similar confidence, saying that the 713 signatures they collected were “well above” the 590 officials needed to show the Metro government they had the preliminary support of over 50 percent of the 1,180 sworn Metro officers.

“The numbers, in a short, six-week campaign, speak for themselves,” Hale said.

Hale also said he believed the move to re-establish the FOP as the main bargaining agent of sworn Metro officers would have been successful even without the arrest of Hullett and the decertification of Officer Roy Dunaway, who had been serving as the department’s liaison to the Teamsters.

Hullett and Dunaway, as well as two Shelby County sheriff’s deputies, have been implicated by the TBI in a plot to bug an FOP youth camp in Wilson County.

“But I’d be lying to you if I said that this little stunt didn’t help us,” Hale said.

FOP officials indicated that it would not be their own organization’s record that they will be running on, but that of the Teamsters.

“If the Teamsters want to try and get cards signed and maintain their bargaining status, let them try. I think they’ve proven what they’re capable of,” Moran said. “We don’t work that way.”

It could take anywhere from two weeks to two months for the Metro Human Resources Department to certify the FOP-collected signatures before scheduling a decertification vote.