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Worked on Merger
'41 Months Without Pact' CEA President John F. Driscoll welcomed his selection. "I'm just happy that we have an arbitrator now, and I'm anxious to just get this going so that my members who are in month 41 without a contract can get their money," he said. The union president noted that PERB is sending Mr. Douglas an official notification of his selection, and the parties will then find out his availability for hearing dates. "My lawyer doesn't think it should take more than five hearings," Mr. Driscoll said. "A decision will be issued roughly two or three months, tops, after the hearing dates." Mr. Douglas has been an arbitrator since 1981. He was appointed by the Public Employment Relations Board in the mid-1990s to chair an arbitration panel handling the Giuliani administration's plan to merge the transit police force into the NYPD. An agreement was reached before Mr. Douglas issued a decision in that dispute. The veteran arbitrator, who has also served as a grievance mediator to help resolve arguments in the airline industry, was selected by an elimination process that presents a list of arbitrators' names to the CEA and city negotiators. The two sides cross off unacceptable candidates until they arrive at a name that both agree upon. Driscoll: Our Only Option The procedure may be costly for both the union and the city, as they must split Mr. Douglas's projected fees of $1,200 to $1,500 a day. "I won't know until all the bills come in," Mr. Driscoll said, after being asked about the expense. "I don't really have much of a choice. I haven't received an offer that would pass my members." Mr. Driscoll has contended that the Bloomberg administration has rejected offers from the union to extend tours or have new Captains work added shifts in order to match the 4.24 percent in savings the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association generated under the attrition-based award issued by an arbitration panel in 2005. The Lieutenants' Benevolent Association and the Detectives' Endowment Association have both used similar concessions to create savings for the city, Mr. Driscoll noted. But city negotiators contend that the CEA has refused to offer the same givebacks the other unions have produced. Less-Willing Adversary The Bloomberg administration appears reluctant to have the contract settled by an arbitration panel. On March 6, the Office of Labor Relations objected to the arbitration process moving forward, contending that the two sides were not at an impasse. "The request for compulsory interest arbitration is premature as the parties have not had the opportunity to fully discuss their respective proposals in detail required to reach an agreement," an OLR letter to the Public Employment Relations Board argued. "In fact, the CEA has failed to respond meaningfully to almost any of the city's numerous proposals for a settlement." But PERB Director of Conciliation Richard Curreri ruled that there was "no basis for the city's claim of prematurity." He noted that the parties participated in three mediation sessions in an attempt to settle their differences. The CEA, which represents 750 Captains, has steadfastly avoided arbitration since a bad experience in the early 1990s. Disagree on Savings The union and city negotiators have spent the past several months haggling over the values of various concessions. A significant portion of the 10.25 percent in wage hikes over two years under the PBA award was offset by the reduction in the pay scale for future hires. But the pay scale for Captains suffered when a prior CEA leader, Bill Kelly, was forced to make similar concessions beyond those accepted by the PBA to match that union's wage gains under a 1988 contract. After the contract problem contributed heavily to Mr. Kelly's defeat at Mr. Driscoll's hands, the union's focus had been on upgrading the scale for new Captains - the group that bore the brunt of the concessions more than 15 years ago.
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