The Sandy police association has pulled out of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, a nationwide union, and joined a specialized police association.
However, the president of the nationwide union thinks Sandy officers have been "duped."Gordon Ottley cited the national reputation of the federation. "They don't have the resources and the background that we have. I expect we're going to get them back."
Sixty-eight Sandy police officers and staff members unanimously agreed to move out of the federation and join the International Union of Police Association, a union serving about 20,000 police officers nationwide.
"We liked what it (the international union) had to offer," said Al Avila, president of the Sandy police union. Avila, along with Dave Greer, president of the Salt Lake City Police Association, researched various unions for more than a year before making the change. The Salt Lake City Police Association also has joined the international union.
Although Avila believes the federation is a powerful union for public employees, it is not specialized for police officers as is the International Union of Police Association. Sandy union members cut their four-year relationship with the federation - which represents 1.25 million public employees nationwide - to end the competition between police and other public employees for financial support, legal assistance and other demands, Avila said.
"The only reason we changed was because we needed to specialize in law enforcement issues," Avila said. The international union will provide specialized training.
"Unions are kind of like any other service and we're going to have to shop around for what is best for us at a given time," Avila said.
Since both the international union and the federation are affiliated with the AFL-CIO, Sandy union members will continue to receive the training and educational resources, he said.