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Razzle Dazzle
There was an unassailable logic to the response: the agreement allowed the SBA to chart its own course, setting what Mayor Bloomberg called "the parameters" for a round of union bargaining covering 2009 - his last year in office - and 2010 while providing members with a deal that does not expire until July 31, 2011. Stepped Away From PBA But it also was a dramatic reversal of the SBA leader's public position until now. In January, he ruled out accepting the raises of 3 and 3.15 percent that are provided under the first two years of this pact, belittling those amounts as "below the cost of living." And he had seemed inclined to follow the lead of Patrolmen's Benevolent Association President Pat Lynch, who is taking the long way to arbitration in the hope of ending 109 years of parity between Police Officers and Firefighters by getting larger pay hikes than the Uniformed Firefighters Association has won over two separate contracts.
"I had thought he was gonna be true-blue," this official said of Sergeant Mullins. "I thought he was with Lynch win, lose or draw." While the PBA, as it customarily does, declined public comment on the deal, it was not hard to imagine Mr. Lynch privately musing, "Et tu, Eddie?" Eighteen months after the PBA union leader exempted his SBA counterpart from a broadside accusing other police union leaders of "bargaining by cover," meaning they did not aggressively confront the Bloomberg administration as long as it granted them deals no worse than those agreed to by other municipal unions, Sergeant Mullins signed on to the pattern set by the UFA, and then carved one of his own that falls short of the grand designs Mr. Lynch has. Clearly, Mr. Bloomberg and Labor Commissioner Jim Hanley made the SBA leader an offer he couldn't refuse. It may also be that he began wondering about the chances of the PBA breaking parity with Firefighters, and his doubts on that score and the wait of a year or more before that arbitration was completed led him to question whether it was worth investing the time. The PBA's previous arbitration, after all, had not given Sergeant Mullins many reasons to be cheerful. The 5-percent raises it established as a pattern for other cop unions had come with a price: a sharply reduced pay scale for future promotees to partly offset the cost to the city. That hadn't directly affected incumbent SBA members, but it had the indirect effect of placing greater strain on them because of a shortage of Sergeants, since there was a sharp drop-off in the number of Police Officers taking and passing the promotion exam because the added money was not commensurate with the greater responsibilities. Makes Responsibilities Worth It Mr. Bloomberg said of the new pay package, which provides 24.3 percent in compounded raises and another 3 points' worth of fringe-benefit improvements, "We think this is a structure and a level that will lead Police Officers to take on the added responsibilities." Sergeant Mullins agreed, saying following the press conference at the Mayor's temporary headquarters in the Office of Emergency Management, "I think the likelihood of more people taking it and studying hard for it will mean more people passing the test." Resolving the contract through negotiations had allowed him to reach some significant milestones for his senior members, even as city officials focused on making the starting rate for new Sergeants more palatable. Maximum pay by Aug. 1, 2010 will reach $94,962, but as the Mayor noted, longevity and holiday differentials will push that above $100,000. The number of SBA members designated as Sergeant Special Assignment will double from about 5 percent to 10 percent of the bargaining unit, and the differential for that role will push their maximum pay to $109,002. During the last 38 months of the pact, annual longevity differentials will increase by $1,060 for those with at least five years as cops, and by $2,060 for those with at least 15 years' service. Since cops are not eligible to become Sergeants until they have worked for at least five years, the entire SBA membership will benefit beginning with the first $460 increase next July 1. 'Package Helpful' Those were among the improvements that led Sergeant Mullins, when asked about his previous objection to the 3 and 3.15 percent raises at the front end of the deal, to respond, "The overall package has helped us to achieve our goals." Just as tellingly, when asked whether he had spoken to Mr. Lynch about the tentative pact and its ramifications for the PBA, his response was a simple, "No." The PBA leader has already indicated that the UFA pact, which contains raises that match the first four years of the SBA deal, did not come close to meeting his members' needs. The two four-percent increases at the end of the deal are unlikely to alter his position, even though they are consistent with the raises an arbitration panel just gave to Nassau County Police Officers and are unencumbered by the reductions in the pay scale for new officers that were part of that award. For years, Mr. Lynch has sold his members the notion that having gained the right to take arbitration cases to the state Public Employment Relations Board would allow the PBA to significantly close the gap between what they are paid and the salaries for cops on Long Island. Mixed Results He has had at best mixed success in fulfilling that pledge, however. A 2002 arbitration granted raises of more than a point annually above what Nassau cops got for the corresponding period, but to a great degree it merely replicated what other uniformed unions had gotten a year earlier in bargaining with the Giuliani administration. And the June 2005 arbitration award, which also granted raises slightly higher than for Nassau cops under their 2003 arbitration award, had a lesser overall value because of the stripped-down pay scale for rookies. The Nassau award, it should be noted, also provided longevity increases that were not part of the 2005 PBA package. But the most-recent Nassau arbitration award, provided earlier this month under the aegis of PERB, further established that there is nothing magical about making a case for cops in front of the state body rather than the city Office of Collective Bargaining. Instead, it confirmed that the generous awards for Nassau and Suffolk cops in the past were the result of nods and winks from county officials to the arbitrators; the generosity has flagged notably over the last two Nassau arbitrations, which have corresponded with a county fiscal crisis and Democrats having taken control of Nassau's government. Having built expectations so high, and with frustration levels among many Police Officers even higher, it would be difficult for Mr. Lynch to trim his sails now and go back to the bargaining table. If he were to get the same raises for his members as Mr. Mullins negotiated for Sergeants, by the end of a six-year deal maximum salary for city cops would be about $74,000. At that same point in 2010, top pay for Nassau cops will be $112,457. Gap Likely to Remain Allowing that wide a gulf to remain in compensation for the two departments would be a major political headache for Mr. Lynch. It is unlikely, however, that he will do better in arbitration, since if the SBA deal is ratified, it becomes another contract for the Bloomberg administration to point to in warning arbitrators of the dangers in disrupting longstanding pay relationships. Even the most sympathetic arbitrator would be hard-pressed to give the PBA raises that would not only break parity with the UFA but compress the gap between Police Officers and Sergeants. By that same token, Mr. Lynch may figure he has nothing to lose by going to arbitration; at worst he will get a deal consistent with those obtained by the UFA and SBA, and there's always a slim hope of doing better. The question is whether that hope is sufficient to justify the extra time - most likely at least a year - and expense - about $8 million - that an arbitration would consume. This is particularly important given the PBA's insistence until now on two-year awards, compared to the six-year duration of the last two Nassau police contracts reached in arbitration. The union's rank and file would in fact have something to lose if, because members were still waiting on pay raises, they were running up credit-card debt and the interest that accompanies it (while also providing the city with an open-ended, interest-free loan until it is required to provide the back pay included in an award). And the cost of previous arbitrations was a prime factor in a 35-percent increase in PBA dues a couple of years ago. At the current pace of bringing back a two-year arbitration award every three years, it would not be until 2014 that the PBA would get the raises allowing its members to catch up with the deal Sergeant Mullins just negotiated. Things might get better sooner if the next Mayor, who will take office in 2010 (assuming Mr. Bloomberg doesn't vacate City Hall earlier in deference to presidential ambitions), eases relations with the union. Takes Onus Off Mayor On the other hand, the SBA deal, which was reached barely two months after Mr. Mullins ran full-page newspaper ads criticizing Mr. Bloomberg's bargaining strategy, suggests that the Mayor can be reasonable at the bargaining table even when dealing with his more-caustic union adversaries. It's not insignificant that the deals that are hemming in Mr. Lynch were reached by the labor leaders - Sergeant Mullins and UFA President Steve Cassidy - who once were his closest allies. And so Mr. Bloomberg's successor might conclude that the problem in getting deals done with the PBA lay primarily with the union. There was no indication last week that the SBA pact had led Mr. Lynch to reassess his position. But with Mr. Mullins joining Mr. Cassidy - another past in-your-face critic of Mr. Bloomberg - in reaching long-term deals rather than waiting to see whether he could create a better pattern, it has begun to seem as if Mr. Lynch is merely delaying the inevitable with another foray into arbitration. Six Years Behind When Mr. Cassidy made a four-year contract deal a couple of years ago that outran the PBA contract by two years, it was suggested here that Mr. Lynch might want to do a four-year deal of his own to establish a new pattern for his members. He didn't take the advice, and the subsequent UFA deal and last week's SBA accord, should it be ratified, would leave the PBA six years behind an emerging uniformed pattern.
The odds of breaking it in some meaningful way are not
much better than those for hitting Lotto. But at least that thought offers a
resonant slogan for the next PBA arbitration: all it takes is $8 million and a
dream. | ||||||
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