SPRINGFIELD - Illinois Fraternal Order of Police (ILFOP) State Lodge President Chris Southwood has issued the following statement regarding a labor contract grievance that was filed by a separate organization, not the Illinois Fraternal Order of Police, on behalf of the former Sangamon County Sheriff’s deputy who has been charged with murder in the death of Sonya Massey:
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“We are the Illinois Fraternal Order of Police, strictly a fraternal organization. The Illinois Fraternal Order of Police State Lodge is not the labor organization that filed the grievance on behalf of the former deputy who is jailed on murder charges. That dubious distinction rests with the Fraternal Order of Police Labor Council, which is a completely separate organization with different leadership, a different organizational structure and a different mission. The Illinois Fraternal Order of Police State Lodge had zero involvement in this grievance and yet we are bearing the brunt of the public outcry and hate communication for that action just because we share a common first name with the FOP Labor Council.”
“The FOP Labor Council is a labor union which should publicly step up to take ownership of its actions rather than silently let a fraternal organization and our 34,500+ members take the heat, and the hate, on this matter. We urge the public to make that distinction in the future, and we join the public in expressing our condolences to the Massey family. We share everyone’s shock over this disturbing, horrible tragedy.”
“The FOP Labor Council is allowed to use our name through a marketing agreement with the National Fraternal Order of Police. The Illinois Fraternal Order of Police State Lodge has had many concerns involving this marketing agreement, which again we have nothing to do with, over the past several years and will once again be requesting the National FOP to make changes to this marketing agreement over these concerns.”
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