City, PBA Going To Arbitration In Wage Battle

By REUVEN BLAU

After three fruitless mediation sessions, the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association contract will once again be settled via binding arbitration, a process that the union asserts will result in a pattern-breaking award.

PATRICK J. LYNCH: Confident union will prevail.

City negotiators have maintained that the wage model for uniformed employees was set for this round of bargaining last fall by the Uniformed Firefighters' Association's 50-month deal, which provided raises of 3 percent and 3.15 percent in its last 26 months. The earlier part of that deal replicated the two 5-percent raises the PBA won in arbitration in June 2005 covering a two-year period.

Lynch: Below Inflation

PBA President Patrick J. Lynch last week called that offer "unacceptable," contending that it is lower than the rate of inflation. "If the city complied with the Taylor Law that mandates equal pay for similar work, it is likely that we could have reached a negotiated settlement," he contended in a statement released shortly after an Oct. 20 mediation session. In September, the Public Employment Relations Board appointed its chief city mediator to help revive the stalled contract talks after city negotiators took the unusual step of petitioning PERB in July to declare an impasse. The Bloomberg administration contended that the union failed to formally respond to two wage offers.

Mr. Lynch has rejected the city's proposal to raise the starting salary for new officers by roughly $10,000, partly because of the givebacks it requires of future hires in other areas. The union has also argued that the maximum salary for cops needs to be increased in order to help recruit and retain new officers.

The unions representing NYPD Detectives and Lieutenants, however, have both agreed to extended 4-year contracts, noting that there has been a 100-year-plus salary parity between cops and Firefighters. An arbitration panel, they have said, will likely insist on maintaining that tradition.

'City Forcing Us'

Mr. Lynch noted that it will be the fifth time in the last six rounds of bargaining that police officers have been "forced" to go to binding arbitration to settle their contract. "In the last two binding arbitration cases, the PBA has been awarded pattern-breaking settlements for significantly more than what the city offered," he contended. "It is regrettable that the city refused to wake up to this reality and forces us to go through a lengthy and expensive binding arbitration process just to achieve a fair contract."

The PBA and the city will begin choosing a three-member panel that will hear their dispute and issue an award. Both sides remain far apart on salary issues, with the PBA once again pushing to bring its pay in line with colleagues at the Port Authority and other surrounding counties.