Razzle Dazzle
Another Brick in PBA Wall

By RICHARD STEIER

Mayor Bloomberg's surprise contract deal with the United Federation of Teachers figures to increase the pressure on Patrolmen's Benevolent Association Patrick J. Lynch to return to bargaining rather than wait for an arbitration award that won't arrive before next summer.

That does not mean, however, that Mr. Lynch will move off his position, which is that nothing the city is willing to offer him will meet the needs of his members.

Asked last week whether the UFT deal might affect his situation, he issued a statement saying, "The PBA is seeking to reach a level of pay for New York City police officers that is comparable to that of other police departments in the metropolitan area as prescribed by the Taylor Law. Until the city offers a plan to bring our members to a competitive level of pay, the PBA will use every avenue available to reach that goal."

Which is a high-falutin' way of saying, "No."

Political Calculation Behind Stall?

For nearly a year, mayoral officials have insisted that Mr. Lynch doesn't want to bargain, and doesn't particularly want a contract prior to his union's election next spring. They believe he's convinced that the lack of a deal allows him to tap into his rank-and-file's hopes and anger in ways that he couldn't with a contract in hand.

NOT READY TO FOLD CARDS: Patrolmen's Benevolent Association President Pat Lynch (left) shows no sign that he will return to bargaining even as the Bloomberg administration makes deals with other unions that compromise the PBA's chances in arbitration. Captains' Endowment Association President John Driscoll says that while Mr. Lynch's position may be unrealistic, from a political standpoint it gives him a better chance of gaining re-election next year than if he were to reach pay terms now that fall short of his promises.

The problem confronting the PBA leader is that, with the Uniformed Firefighters' Association already under contract for the two-year period that would be covered by the upcoming arbitration, his hopes of major contract gains have already been foreclosed.

Mr. Lynch has protested that the raises of 3 and 3.15 percent accepted by the UFA for that period - which ended in August - were below the rate of inflation. Of equal concern to him is that 3s don't look nearly as spiffy as 5s, which is what he got for incumbent cops under an arbitration award 17 months ago.

The problem was that, to convince the chairman of the arbitration panel to be that generous, the union had to accept a sharply reduced salary schedule for new officers, one that has since been condemned by the PBA and Police Commissioner Ray Kelly alike. While Mr. Lynch and Mayor Bloomberg have traded blame for the current $25,100 starting pay, and the loss of $48,000 in salary during their first six years on the job for new cops compared with those on the force prior to July 2005, those newer officers don't figure to be part of the PBA leader's voting base.

And so, the thinking goes, he is better off punting the contract and allowing it to hang in the air going into the next PBA election than he would be accepting terms that will earn him the same kind of ill feelings from veteran officers.

Captains' Endowment Association President John Driscoll, who earlier this year was a target of Mr. Lynch's ire as one of several union leaders he regards as too friendly with City Hall, said the PBA president wasn't necessarily stalling.

"I think Pat Lynch believes he can break the pattern of 3 and 3.15," he said. "He's told his members he broke the pattern in the last two arbitrations."

Dubious Win Last Time

While the arbitrator's ruling in the 2002 PBA case awarding union members the same 11.75-percent increase in compensation over 24 months that police supervisors accepted over 30 months was a tangible gain, most people in the labor universe don't count last year's arbitration as a win for the union. The wage terms for incumbents were clearly superior to those under the pattern first set by District Council 37 in April 2004, but the givebacks for new hires were significantly worse than those DC 37 accepted.

More to the point, from the standard of the PBA, the slashed pay scale forced the unions representing the two immediate promotional titles, Sergeant and Detective, to accept similar cuts in order to win the same 5-percent raises for incumbents. This meant that not only were new cops suffering from the deal, but anyone already in the union would pay the price of the devalued pay scales if they were promoted.

And such a victory, if it can really be called that, is not available to Mr. Lynch in the coming arbitration. For one thing, the city is sufficiently chastened by the reaction to the cut-rate starting salary that it won't go down that road again, and has already made a proposal that would increase the starting pay by more than 50 percent. For another, both that PBA arbitration award and the 2002 one were issued at a time when there was no Firefighter contract in place.

That is not so this time, and so Mr. Lynch, in seeking to exceed the UFA terms, is trying to shatter the chains of more than 100 years of parity between Police Officers and Firefighters when it comes to maximum salary.

One veteran union official, who spoke conditioned on anonymity, said that because of the police/fire relationship, the only immediate relevance the UFT deal had was in reminding cops just how far the bargaining parade had moved ahead of them.

'Stuck With UFA Terms'

"I think the PBA's dead in the water - they're stuck with the 3 and 3.15 because of the UFA," he explained. The UFT deal "has some impact, but not as much as if a uniformed group did something working off this new pattern. But Cassidy or Gorman might want to venture in," referring to the leaders of the two firefighter unions.

Labor Commissioner Jim Hanley last week described the UFT deal as "a home run" for both the Mayor and UFT President Randi Weingarten, because it gives them reason to work together on other key issues, offers Ms. Weingarten's members the comfort of knowing what their pay raises will be (and that they will be paid on time) through 2008, and allows the city to make budget plans knowing its likely labor costs for much of the remainder of Mr. Bloomberg's term.

Mr. Lynch, however, is not looking for a mere home run. Breaking salary parity with Firefighters would be the bargaining equivalent of hitting a fair ball out of Yankee Stadium. It hasn't been done, and Mr. Driscoll is among those convinced that the PBA leader doesn't have the bat to do it.

Terror Bonus Also Iffy

Even getting his members a differential for anti-terrorism work along the lines of the $2,652 that State Troopers got under their 2005 contract may be beyond the realm in the coming arbitration, simply because that kind of payment wasn't granted to Firefighters as part of their deal last fall.

And so the prospects for the PBA of a breakthrough in arbitration are not bright. Ordinarily, then, the UFT deal might be expected to generate heat from rank-and-file cops to get to the table and bring a deal home.

The Mayor, who clearly resents the PBA's unwillingness to reach terms that could quickly improve the NYPD's ability to recruit new officers, made a point of the fact that by May 2008, the UFT contract will bring top pay for Teachers to slightly more than $100,000, and new instructors will start at better than $45,000.

Delays Widen Pay Gap

In contrast, Police Officers at maximum salary are now making slightly below $60,000. That is a somewhat skewed comparison, however, because the police salary reflects a number that - although not implemented until last summer - is based on a raise that took effect in July 2003. The prospective top salary for Teachers has been fattened by nearly five years' worth of raises since then, while the PBA arbitration is likely to bring cops no further than to a mid-2006 pay rate. Implemented, it should be noted, sometime in the middle of next year.

That would mean sizable retroactive paychecks for PBA members, although taxes being taken out would make them not nearly as healthy as the gross figures, Mr. Driscoll noted. And any members of the union who are running up credit-card balances rather than tightening their belts until the raises materialize are being tagged for enough interest to make the delay a costly one for them.

If cops were being realistic, there might be an overwhelming outcry for Mr. Lynch to start chasing the Teacher raises rather than waiting for arbitrators - who by profession tend to be people of moderation - to do something radical. Mr. Driscoll, however, is among those who don't believe that will happen, and that Mr. Lynch will resist the clamor even if it comes.

"I think this is a very good move on Jim's part," he said of Mr. Hanley's having pushed three years forward in establishing a bargaining pattern that would influence the PBA's negotiations beyond the looming arbitration.

'Has to Keep Chasing'

"What he's doing is leapfrogging everybody and creating a situation where Pat is always going to be chasing the pattern," said Mr. Driscoll, who himself is trying to negotiate a contract more than three years after his old one expired.

It is not in Mr. Lynch's political interests, however, to bow to the reality of the situation even if large retroactive checks might improve his members' mood as next year's election approaches. For one thing, Mr. Driscoll noted, no one has emerged as a potential challenger to Mr. Lynch. It may be that the only way that will change is if the PBA president agrees with the Bloomberg administration on a new contract that becomes an easy target because it falls short of his promises.

"If he capitulates, then he's saying to the troops, 'We're not really going to get Nassau money' [in arbitration]," the CEA leader remarked. "I think he has to play this one out. If he doesn't, then why did you wait?"