DAYTON — Dayton police union leaders say they fear the city is trying to get out of a signed contract agreement with the union and its officers.
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The FOP and the city signed the contract a couple of months ago after a year and a half of negotiating.
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FOP leaders say every neighborhood and every person in the city deserves the protection that police officers work to provide, and they thought despite the bruised feelings contract negotiations always bring, everyone was on the same page. That feeling is now completely gone.
They all believed the signed contract, after 18 months of work, would finally address officer morale, avoid constant departures, and build a workforce.
“We did some good things in there to bump our lower people up, try to retain those people that we were losing, who only have a few years on, so we felt very positive about it,” said Sgt. Kyle Thomas, President of the Dayton Fraternal Order of Police Union.
Officers noticed they were not getting the step raises they anticipated. When they asked city leaders about that, it became apparent there was a huge difference in the views of when each side felt that should happen.
“They use terms like ‘step anniversary’ which has never been used here before. We have very clearly defined practices for decades here of how pay steps work,’ Thomas said.
The union claims this dispute, over a signed contract, should be settled by a grievance arbitrator.
They claim the city tried to take it to the state employee relations board, which police say can only be involved during the negotiation stage.
News Center 7 reached out to city leaders who said they did not have any comments at this time.
It has all left officers more than a little upset.
“They’re damaging their own workforce, the culture here, the morale here and people are on fire,” Thomas said.
Thomas worries that if this isn’t fixed quickly, the attrition problems, officers leaving, what everyone was worried about before will quickly come back and be worse than ever.
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