Chicago, Police Union Trade Lawsuits over Vaccine Mandate Compliance

CHICAGO— Hours after Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot said she’s gone to court against the local Fraternal Order of Police over its refusal to comply the city’s vaccine mandate, the police union announced its own legal filing.

Lightfoot is asking the courts to intervene after the union chief told members to disobey Friday’s deadline to report their vaccine status. The FOP announced on Twitter it had filed its own request for a judge to hear the case, in the form of a lawsuit against the city, mayor and police Superintendent David Brown.

“As Chicago’s Mayor, I cannot and will not stand idly by while the rhetoric of conspiracy theorists threatens the health and safety of Chicago’s residents and first responders,” Lightfoot said in a statement issued Friday morning. FOP Lodge 7 President John Catanzara “has time and again deliberately misled our police officers by lying about the requirements of the policy and falsely claiming that there will be no repercussions if officers are insubordinate and refuse to follow a City and Department directive or order.”

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The mayor’s statement alleges Catanzara is “engaging in, supporting, and encouraging a work stoppage or strike.” State law and the FOP contract both prohibit striking by Chicago police, Lightfoot said.

The Chicago FOP Twitter account responded Friday morning by posting, “President John Catanzara has never engaged in, supported, or encouraged a work stoppage.”

The duel filings were indicative of a growing standoff between the city and the police union over the vaccine mandate, which has escalated in recent days even after Lightfoot agreed to give employees the option of submitting to COVID-19 testing for the rest of the year if they’re not yet fully vaccinated.

At an unrelated news conference, Lightfoot stepped up her criticism of the FOP president, saying he’s trying to “foment an illegal work stoppage” and spur an “insurrection.”

Lightfoot also took aim at Catanzara’s checkered disciplinary history, noting that he is currently facing the possibility of being fired by the Chicago Police Board. She repeatedly urged officers not to follow in his footsteps.

“I don’t want him to lead these young officers astray and have them destroy their careers like he’s destroyed his,” Lightfoot said.

The mayor also linked the ongoing standoff to bigger issues facing the Chicago Police Department, saying the city can’t let Catanzara dictate how the department runs and arguing that the police department’s legitimacy is being put at risk by the FOP.

Lightfoot’s law department filed a complaint in Cook County Circuit Court against the union and Catanzara for injunctive relief — effectively asking the court to intervene and rule and on the legality of the FOP’s actions.

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker has weighed in on the prospect of Illinois National Guard help in Chicago if police are off the job en masse.

“We’ve offered every resource, every public safety resource that’s available to the state to offer to municipalities to the city of Chicago, so if the city calls us, we’ll respond,” Gov. J.B. Pritzker said at an unrelated event Thursday when asked by a conservative radio talk show host whether he was “ready to call in the Illinois National Guard.”

“Of course, we’ll help in any way we possibly can,” Pritzker said. “I think you understand by now that you can’t just march National Guard into a city without coordinating and you can’t just march state police into a city without coordinating with the Chicago Police Department. So at every turn we have continuing conversations with them, but we need the leadership of the city to ask us. … We can’t just have them arrive and not have coordination between the local police and the state police.”

Lightfoot on Thursday was asked if the governor should call in resources or declare a state of emergency. “I don’t want to deal in hypothetical scenarios that have not presented themselves. Obviously, we believe in planning and being ready.”

Lightfoot announced in August that all city of Chicago workers must be fully vaccinated against the coronavirus by Oct. 15, following numerous cities across the U.S. The mandate for more than 30,000 city employees, except for those granted medical or religious exemptions, was immediately opposed by the FOP, the largest union for the city’s police department.

Earlier this week, Catanzara — with whom Lightfoot has regularly sparred — released a video that included threats to sue the city and orders for thousands of rank-and-file members to defy Lightfoot’s vaccination reporting requirement and brace for being sent home without pay.

It is unclear how many officers will follow suit. But in a new video Catanzara posted Thursday evening, the union boss again told his members to refuse any instruction to report their vaccine status, calling that an illegal order. He encouraged his rank-and-file to record such directives on their body cameras if able.

Experts told the Tribune Catanzara is walking a fine line legally. Matthew Finkin, a labor law professor at University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, said the police union leader’s direction could be tantamount to a strike if it’s seen as a “concerted job action.” That could open the officers to discipline rising to firing.

“They’re rolling the dice,” Finkin said. “There can be severe consequences.”

The FOP also might not have as much leverage as it thinks, Finkin added. It is true the city would have to jump through hoops over a potential mass noncompliance of the mandate, he said, but that could also chip away at the public’s opinion of the police union.

Martin Malin, a law professor emeritus at Chicago-Kent College of Law and Biden appointee to a federal labor panel, said the FOP’s plans are “uncharted territory” when it comes to the definition of a strike. But he cautioned that the old labor adage, “obey now, grieve later,” would be the wisest course of action for the FOP should they wish to avoid punishment for insubordination.

Still, Malin said Catanzara’s not gambling on his legal footing but his political might.

“It’s one thing whether you have the legal right to do something; it’s another thing as to whether you have the power to do it,” Malin said. “How much is real and how much is posturing? And Catanzara and Lightfoot don’t get along at all, so you’ve got to factor that in as well.”

On Thursday evening, Catanzara appeared on FOX’s “The Ingraham Angle” to share his views on the order.

“Our stance from the beginning is that we’re a union there are collective bargaining rights that need to be maintained and honored,” Catanzara said.

Lightfoot is in a politically fraught situation with the dispute over vaccination mandates. She wants to encourage workers to get vaccinated but doesn’t want to suspend significant portions of the workforce, particularly not police officers, as Chicago crime remains high.

The mayor, who has repeatedly backed away from ultimatums she has issued to the Chicago Teachers Union in other labor disputes, doesn’t want to back down from the mandate, which leaves her with relatively little room to maneuver.

A court ruling in Lightfoot’s favor could make the case for compliance easier by undercutting Catanzara’s argument that the union’s actions are proper.

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