Leadership Profile: IBPO Local 364 Secretary Rachel Thomas
Born and raised in the city she now serves, Rachel Thomas is a 27-year veteran of the Springfield, Massachusetts Police Department, the secretary of IBPO Local 364, and a member of the IBPO's national advisory committee—a role she considers both a priority and an honor.
"I'm very honored to be a member of the IBPO National Advisory Committee," said Thomas. "I'm able to speak for police officers from my own local, and make a difference for all of the members of the IBPO."
Thomas first got involved with Local 364 some 18 years ago, when a colleague was considering running for another office and encouraged her to run for the position of secretary. "I liked being involved and consider myself a well organized person, so I decided to give it a go," said Thomas, who has spent most of the years since then as an officer in Local 364.
Over nearly two decades of union activism, Thomas has seen first-hand what a difference a strong union can make in the lives of officers. Earlier this decade, then-Governor Mitt Romney put the city’s operations into the hands of a control board when the city faced a dire financial crisis. The board tried to ignore its commitments under the contract and civil service laws, insisting that they were irrelevant.
"Had we not had a strong union, Springfield police officers could have lost their contract right out from under them during the Romney administration," said Thomas. "It was through the action of our union and its lobbyists that stopped that from happening."
The struggles continue as the city fights the latest economic downturn, but Thomas and her local have made strides wherever possible. For example, they went through difficult negotiations for the right to join the state employee health insurance program so that they could maintain sufficient health care coverage at a reasonable cost. And one of her proudest achievements affects Thomas and her officers ever day: their current contract.
"It was a home run," said Thomas. "At the time we negotiated it, we were tentative about agreeing to a contract that ran all the way through 2012. Doing so, however, we obtained a raise in each year, which I don’t believe would have been the case if we'd had to negotiate new contracts during a time of continued cuts in state aid."
As if all that weren’t enough to keep her busy, Thomas is an accomplished cook, baker and outdoorswoman. She and her husband of 30 years, Phil, raised sons Brian and Scott—and she’s now the proud grandmother of little Gabriel.