Labor Law – Rights of Aviation Security Officers

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7^th Circuit Court of Appeals

Case Name: Keia Yates v. City of Chicago

Case No.: 22-1109, 21-2953

Officials: Easterbrook, Hamilton, and Brennan, Circuit Judges.

Focus: Labor Law – Rights of Aviation Security Officers

Between 1993 and 2017, the City of Chicago treated aviation security officers at O’Hare Airport as law-enforcement personnel, able to make arrests while employed and to carry concealed firearms after retirement. State officials queried whether this treatment was proper, given that the officers were unarmed and reported to the Commissioner of Aviation rather than the Chief of Police. In 2017 the City concluded that they are not law-enforcement personnel. Their union challenged this decision, which the Illinois Labor Relations Board sustained. Service Employees, International Union, Local 73, 35 PERI ¶69, 2018 IL LRB LEXIS 66 (Oct. 17, 2018). Neither the union nor any of its members contested this decision in state court.

According to the Seventh Circuit, there is no “fundamental right” to be a law enforcement officer. Although the Chicago Code says that the officers “shall be sworn in as special policemen,” the process due for any violation of state or local law or of a collective-bargaining agreement is the opportunity to sue in state court. The union bypassed that opportunity in 2018. A suit under 42 U.S.C. 1983 is not a way to supersede that decision. The collective-bargaining agreement does not promise that aviation security officers will remain law enforcement officials

Affirmed.

Decided 01/25/23

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