Marilyn McBride, a Prairie State College police officer in Illinois, returned from a lengthy medical leave in March 2025 to find she had been placed at the bottom of her bargaining unit’s shift seniority list. Both the College and her representative, the Illinois Council of Police (ICOPs), maintained this was required by their CBA. ICOPs’ staff representative communicated to the College that because McBride’s non-duty sickness leave exceeded six months, “her bargaining unit seniority under the CBA restarted upon her return to work” for purposes like shift and vacation bidding.
McBride filed two grievance forms directly with the College, alleging that ICOPs failed to represent her and that the loss of seniority created a hostile work environment. The College, after consulting with ICOPs and its own attorney, agreed with ICOPs’ contract interpretation and adjusted her seniority date accordingly. The College’s president ultimately concluded that the seniority dispute was governed by the CBA and was not a grievable matter with the College, directing McBride to file an unfair labor practice charge if she believed the contract was misapplied. McBride filed a charge alleging that ICOPs violated the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Act by refusing to process her grievance and failing to represent her fairly.
The Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board’s Executive Director conducted an investigation and recommended dismissal of McBride’s charge. The Executive Director first corrected procedural issues, noting McBride cited inapplicable employer-centric provisions of the law. More substantively, the Director found that McBride, as an individual employee, lacked standing to allege ICOPs’ refused to bargain in good faith, as that duty is bilateral and enforceable only by the exclusive representative or the employer.
On the core claim of a breach of the duty of fair representation under Section 14(b)(1) of the Act, the Executive Director found no evidence of “fraudulent, deceitful, or deliberately hostile” union conduct aimed at McBride due to her status or personal animus. ICOPs’ decision was “reasonably based on its interpretation of the parties’ bargaining agreement.” A union is not required to process every grievance and has wide discretion to act based on the contract’s perceived meaning and the interests of the membership as a whole. The investigation revealed that ICOPs had examined the merits and concluded upholding McBride’s interpretation could adversely affect the entire unit.
Illinois Council of Police, 42 PERI ¶ 82 (IELRB 2025).