DEA Pact Veto May Hurt Other Uniformed Talks Superior Officers’ Heads Call Deal Best Available

DEA Pact Veto May Hurt Other Uniformed Talks; Superior Officers' Heads Call Deal Best Available

By REUVEN BLAU

When state arbitrators released the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association contract award in June, the city's uniformed supervisory unions said that it would be difficult for them to generate the same attrition-based savings because of lower turnover rates, and that the other ways of producing savings might antagonize their members.

JOHN F. DRISCOLL: Questions 'no' vote. Those concerns became a reality Dec. 1 when the Detectives' Endowment Association narrowly rejected a proposed 48-month wage contract with the city that would have required most Detectives to work longer tours to help finance 17percent raises.

'Tougher Now for All'

"I think the rejection makes it worse for all of us," said Peter D. Meringolo, the president of the Correction Captains' Association. "I don't know why the members voted it down. I think [DEA President] Michael Palladino did a very good job, under the guidelines that have been established."

The PBA award - a 10.25-percent retroactive raise over two years - was financed by drastically slashing the starting salary for future Police Officers, among other concessions. But Police Officers have a much higher attrition rate than other uniformed workers, making it easier for the PBA to generate sizable savings by stretching the pay scale.

JOSEPH MANNION: Take long-term view. "How much more are you supposed to do?" wondered John F. Driscoll, the president of the Captains' Endowment Association, referring to the DEA proposed contract. "When the PBA arbitration came down, it really penalized the successor unions."

Mr. Driscoll speculated that the 30 percent of the 5,500 Detectives who didn't vote were probably in favor of the contract. "Just typical apathy," he remarked. The margin of defeat was 111 votes.

"I think there are 2,000 members in the Detective ranks kicking themselves in the ass that they didn't vote," said Joe Mannion, the president of Sanitation Officers' Association Local 444. "I think a lot of them that did not vote assumed that it would be ratified. That's why it's important that everybody gets their votes in."

Best Deal Available

The union leaders all praised the deal Mr. Palladino negotiated, calling it the best possible contract under the circumstances. Mr. Mannion said, "If we came up with a deal like that, I think my membership would have voted for it." Mr. Driscoll pointed out that Mr. Palladino wasn't able to discuss the terms of the tentative contract and detail the pattern-bargaining situation with all his members directly. "If he could have gotten to all the commands and the entire membership, that contract would have passed," Mr. Driscoll contended. That won't be a problem for the CEA, which represents 750 Captains, he added.

PETER D. MERINGOLO: Members 'getting antsy.' The DEA's tentative deal would have also stretched the salary schedule for newly promoted officers. Mr. Meringolo speculated that the 51 percent of the members who rejected the contract wanted the DEA "to inflict more pain on the unborn."

But that logic, he contended, is skewed. "I think as a union leader you have an obligation to balance the scales," he asserted.

Captain Meringolo said that he asks all his new members if they voted to reduce the salary and benefits for new hires in order to finance bigger raises while they were in the lower title. "Because if you vote for a contract that sells out the unborn, you can't bitch about a contract that does the same to you," he said.

'Look Out for the Future'

Mr. Mannion agreed. "They don't realize that the deals they do then impact them when they come up through the ranks," he remarked. "We have to look out for the future, and I don't think we are doing that right now."

The Sanitation supervisors have to match the Uniformed Sanitationmen's Association contract, which provided 17 percent in raises over 51 months, Mr. Mannion said. That deal was overwhelmingly ratified, 3,982 to 64.

A portion of the Sanitation Worker raises was financed by far-reaching productivity measures including a one-person garbage truck, slightly longer collection routes, and a sharp reduction in pay for new hires.

"The first-line union in our department has already set a different pattern for us," Mr. Mannion said. "And I think our membership will be happy with what we come out with. I got to think positive."

Supervisors, however, don't receive an added stipend for loading trucks, as many Sanitation Workers do. They also are unable to generate savings from longer pickup routes. As for CEA contract talks with the city, Mr. Driscoll has said that he plans to use a grievance against the NYPD concerning overtime compensation as leverage. In May, the Office of Collective Bargaining ruled that the city violated the CEA's collective-bargaining agreement by failing to negotiate with the union before placing a 1,556-hour cap on the amount of comp time Captains could accumulate.

The issue, OCB concluded, is a mandatory subject of collective bargaining. Since that ruling, Mr. Driscoll has asserted, the NYPD has begun auditing and subtracting comp time from his members that the department had previously signed off on.

The round of bargaining, he said, has angered many officers. "It's creating a lot of bitterness," he commented. "Similar to the bitterness when Rudy Giuliani made the members take two zeroes in the round of bargaining from [1995] to 2001."

Waiting on UFA

Anthony Garvey, the president of the Lieutenants' Benevolent Association, said that he's waiting to see if the Uniformed Firefighters' Association ratifies its proposed four-year wage accord. That membership vote will be tallied Dec. 29. "That will cement the next round of bargaining," he said.

Mr. Meringolo, however, said his contract committee has already been looking over "menus" of proposals from city negotiators. "I don't know where I'm going to go yet," he said. "But my members are starting to get antsy. Once other unions start to settle, they want theirs too."