Seattle Police Department officers, already weary from a drawn-out contract negotiation process, are seething over a move by the Mayor’s office to circumvent the Seattle Police Officers’ Guild (SPOG). Additionally, Guild President Rich O’Neil says SPOG will be filing an unfair labor practice complaint tomorrow. SPOG got their way the last time they filed a labor complaint—to prevent the Office of Professional Accountability Review Board (OPARB) from receiving unredacted police files, effectively crippling OPARB. Now, the Guild is screaming about what O’Neil refers to as “union busting.”

Yesterday, several of the department’s assistant police chiefs—who are not represented by SPOG—showed up at the department’s four precincts during roll call, on behalf of the Mayor’s Office, and passed out a document outlining the city’s salary increase offer. All of the Guild’s representatives were in a training that day, and not immediately available when they were contacted about what was happening.

According to O’Neil,officers were so outraged at the South Precinct, one officer threw packets of Kool-Aid on the ground in front of an Assistant Chief and screamed, “We’re not drinking your Kool-Aid!”

While the mayor’s move was a gutsy one—bringing the contract proposal directly to officers in the hopes they’d urge push their leadership to settle on a contract—it appears to have backfired and SPOG may end up with even more power at the bargaining table.

Officers, outraged by the mayor’s move, appear to be rallying around SPOG, even though they don’t seem displeased with the offer on the table. “The money’s not bad, really,” says one officer, who asked not to be named. However, he says, “We have a guild to represent us. That’s their job. [The city] circumvented the system because they didn’t like bargaining with [SPOG]. Everybody feels like it’s a slap in the face.”

It appears officers are primarily upset with the principle of the mayor’s move, rather than the details of the contract. However, there are still a few sticking points. Although O’Neil claims the Guild was close to a “blockbuster deal” with the city, sources familiar with the bargaining process disagree.

One of SPOG’s major objections was to one of the mayor’s 29 Points for improving police accountability. The current SPD contract requires internal investigations into misconduct to be completed within 180 days, which has allowed several officers to escape punishment. The City wants to remove the 180-day window, and have investigation be at the discretion of OPA’s director.

According to O’Neil, that’s just not going to happen. “There’s no amount of money we’re ever going to agree to for that,” he says. “There has to be some end to an investigation.” O’Neil claims the city asked the Guild to sit down at the bargaining table without a mediator, and see if things could be worked out. However, O’Neil says the city requested confidentiality for the discussions, something he feels was broken when the city distributed contract offers to officers.

O’Neil claims he’s privately received apologies from negotiators, but, he says, “I had someone in the mayor’s office say they never agreed to confidentiality. When they’re on the stand under oath when we file our unfair labor practice [complaint], we’ll see.” However, O’Neil adds, “[The City] can call this off with a phone call.”

For now, the Guild and the city aren’t talking, but according to the officer I spoke with earlier today, things need to get back on track or the city—and department—are going to have an even bigger problem on their hands.

“There’s like 50 officers [who have] put in to transfer to other departments if the contract doesn’t come in,” the officer says. “The ship is sinking here. They’ve got to settle something. On top of that, the officer says there’s growing resentment in the Department. “Why go out and police if every time I contact someone, I’m going to be considered a racist, or something?” [Officers] are going ‘I’m going to work in Bellevue or the county where everybody likes each other.’ Nobody wants to work in Seattle.”