The Metropolitan Alliance of Police, Orland Park Police Chapter No. 159 (MAP), filed an unfair labor practice charge against the Village of Orland Park concerning the Village’s treatment of Officer Joseph McGreal. The Illinois Labor Relations Board dismissed the charge in accord with an arbitrator’s recommendation. McGreal then filed in the circuit court a petition to vacate the arbitrator’s award. The circuit court dismissed the petition. McGreal appealed.
The appeals court found that McGreal lacked standing to petition to vacate the arbitrator’s award, holding that when parties to a collective bargaining agreement use procedures established in the agreement to arbitrate a grievance, only the parties to the collective bargaining agreement have standing to petition to vacate the arbitrator’s award, unless the individual employee can show that the union breached its duty of fair representation.