RSS Feed |
|
|
|
|||||||||
|
Files Improper Practice
Source of Hard Feelings At issue is the breakaway by UFA President Stephen J. Cassidy from the uniformed coalition in late February to engage in intensive bargaining with Mayor Bloomberg's chief negotiator, Labor Relations Commissioner James F. Hanley. On March 2, following two days of constant talks, the parties announced a contract deal at City Hall. Several other uniformed union leaders shortly after that expressed anger that the UFA had stepped away from the coalition to make the deal without apprising them. Mr. Cassidy and Mr. Hanley both responded at the time by noting that there had not been a formal bargaining session between the city and the uniformed coalition since late January, and that the coalition had previously set Feb. 14 as the date on which it would disband if no wage deal had been reached.
"I'm not angry that the Firefighters got a contract," he said in a March 30 interview. "But we were recognized as a coalition and so the city should have notified us that it was no longer bargaining with a coalition and we were free to make our own deals. It's not right; it's not fair." Mr. Cassidy issued a statement in response: "Obviously Mr. Seabrook is concerned about not being able to match the UFA deal for his members. We find the petition to be filled with gross inaccuracies."
The improper practice petition accused the city of a failure to bargain in good faith by employing a "divide and conquer" strategy to make a secret deal with the UFA. "The city's historical employment of pattern bargaining shows its intent to automatically link the benefits of employees in the unit represented by the UFA to the yet-to-be negotiated benefits of employees in the units represented by the coalition." Added Pressure on PBA? Although city officials have never said as much, it is widely believed by other union leaders that Mr. Hanley sought the quick deal with the UFA to put further pressure on the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association to come to the bargaining table. The PBA talks have been deadlocked for the past nine months, with arbitration on tap for later this year, but the UFA contract, because it would raise the top salary for Firefighters to about $9,000 above what senior Police Officers currently make, was viewed as a potential spur to the PBA to resume bargaining. If COBA won the improper practice case, it would benefit the PBA in either of two ways. A delay in raising Firefighter salaries - in the event that the BCB voided the tentative agreement - would remove some of the pressure on the PBA to reach a deal in the near future. And if the mediation board instead ruled that the UFA terms were not binding on other unions, it would improve the PBA's chances of breaking the 109-year-old parity relationship between police and fire salaries. 'Open Pandora's Box' "I realize this might open up a Pandora's Box," Mr. Seabrook said, an allusion to the fact that if arbitrators no longer felt constrained to link police and firefighter salaries, they also could end more-recent relationships and opt to pay cops more than his own members. He nonetheless felt compelled to take his chances, in part because he is not happy with one aspect of the UFA deal, which although it has been approved by the union's battalion delegates has not yet been ratified by either company delegates or rank-and-file Firefighters. Mr. Seabrook asserted that in raising starting salary for Firefighters from $25,100 to $35,000 under the deal, the Bloomberg administration obtained a greater savings by reducing fringe benefit payments to that same group. In order to reduce the cost to the city of boosting starting pay, the UFA agreed to reductions in paid holidays, night differential and annuity payments to future Firefighters during their first five years on the job. A Losing Proposition? The COBA leader asserted that while the big hike in starting pay (which over the first full year on the job actually amounted to $30,800 for Firefighters, since they climbed to a higher pay rate after completing 13 weeks of Fire Academy training) eliminated a public-relations problem for the city, it did not benefit future hires. Because of the benefits they would lose, he claimed, "It ends up costing $12,000 to do what you're getting $10,000 for." He said he would not agree to a similar trade-off for future Correction Officers. The key aspects of the UFA deal from the point of view of incumbent Firefighters are two 4-percent raises, an increase of $1,000 in longevity differentials, the ending of a requirement that they get approval from the FDNY before taking outside employment, a city-issued drug card, and an increase in the differential paid to company chauffeurs and tillermen. Double-Edged Benefit One significant benefit - a differential equal to 12 percent of salary for Firefighters assigned to Rescue Companies and Haz-Mat duties - could, ironically, be the primary obstacle to the deal being ratified. Both union officials and some Firefighters in the field have acknowledged resentment that a bonus of that size is going to only about 500 of the union's 8,900 members. Mr. Cassidy, in making his case for the contract during visits to firehouses, has emphasized that funding for the specialty pay did not come at the expense of the basic wage settlement, and that the benefit opens the door for the UFA to expand the number of eligible Firefighters in future contracts.
| |||||||||
)
)
)