Nashville police vote to remove union representation

Unofficial results Thursday showed 634 out of 674 ballots cast voting to decertify the FOP. Officials said 599 votes from the 1,199 sworn officers in the department were needed to decertify the union.

“I was surprised at the number of police officers who would choose to decertify the FOP,” said Brock Parks, executive director of the organization. “That just shows that the department is still deeply divided.”

Nashville city officials said it would take five days to make the results of the election official. After that, any group that submits a petition with signatures from at least 30 percent of the sworn officers in Metro can request a new representation election.

Officials with the Teamsters union, which wants to represent Nashville police, said they planned to file a petition Friday. Teamsters officials claim that some officers are dissatisfied with the FOP because it hasn’t fought hard enough for a new pension plan desired by officers.

“The officers just had that feeling like the FOP had sold them out,” said former FOP president Lt. Calvin Hullett “They want a real union. I think it will be up to the Teamsters to show, when they become the bargaining unit, that there is a brighter side.”

Galen Munroe, a spokesman for the Teamsters, said the results show officers are “ready to move forward.”

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Information from: The Tennessean, http://www.tennessean.com