17% Hike Over 4 Years
UFOA Pact Cleans Old Deal's Wounds

By ARI PAUL and RICHARD STEIER

The Uniformed Fire Officers' Association has reached a tentative four-year contract that will provide members with 4-percent raises in each year, raise longevity differentials by $1,000 and provide extra compensation for some chiefs.

MAYOR BLOOMBERG: 'A good deal for them.'

The deal, which takes bits and pieces of agreements the Bloomberg administration previously reached with the unions representing Firefighters and NYPD Sergeants, got an unusual public unveiling. Rather than being announced at a press conference, its terms were discussed by UFOA President John J. McDonnell with Labor Relations Commissioner James F. Hanley and Mr. Bloomberg on the Mayor's July 20 radio show on WABC.

Aids Lieuts., Marshals

Mr. McDonnell said in a subsequent interview that one of the keys to the deal was that it alleviated some of the problems created by the union's last contract, when it was forced to reduced starting pay for Lieutenants and Supervising Fire Marshals in order to match the 5-percent raises won by the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association in arbitration for incumbents in those and higher ranks.

The Chief-Leader/Pat Arnow  FIXING AN OLD MESS: Uniformed Fire Officers Association President John McDonnell said that in addition to the gains for all 2,400 of his members under the tentative pact, he was particularly pleased to have remedied some of the problems created for newer members in the union's previous contract by an unfavorable bargaining pattern set by a Patrolmen's Benevolent Association arbitration award.

The reductions meant that during their first four years in those ranks, the new promotees were scheduled to earn $37,000 less than more-senior Lieutenants and Supervising Marshals.

The revised pay schedules would raise the starting pay for Lieutenants by more than $8,500 and for Supervising Fire Marshals by more than $14,000.

Under last week's deal, which if ratified would be retroactive to March 20 of this year and run through March 19, 2011, as of next March 20, minimum pay for all Lieutenants promoted since March 1, 2006 would be $75,000 - compared to the old starting rate of $66,435 - and maximum pay, reached after four years in the rank, would move from $78,695 to $87,798. Supervising Fire Marshals would see their minimum salary rise from $72,615 to $87,400 next March, and the maximum would jump from $86,061 to $96,016.

22% Jump by Pact's End

By the end of the contract, when the final two raises had kicked in, the new starting pay for Lieutenant would reach $81,120 and for Supervising Fire Marshal it would be $94,532. Both represent jumps of better than 22 percent.

Assuming the pact is ratified, beginning Sept. 1 all Deputy Chiefs designated as Division Commanders will receive an annual assignment differential of $2,500, while Battalion Chiefs who are Battalion Commanders will get $1,500 extra annually. "There has never been monetary compensation for that extra responsibility," Chief McDonnell said. "It's something we've been attempting to get for quite some time."

Also on that day, an assignment differential would take effect for Lieutenants, Captains and Battalion Chiefs who are either regularly assigned or are detailed for a lengthy period to specified companies, something that is consistent with the granting earlier this year of a 12-percent pay differential to Firefighters working in rescue and hazardous-materials units.

End 'Surplus' Schedules

The deal as of next March 20 would discontinue "surplus officer assignments," under which fire officers not assigned to a specific company wound up with work schedules that were so erratic, Mr. McDonnell said, that it was "driving them crazy."

The $1,000 longevity increase, which would apply to all steps, would take effect April 20, 2010.

The pact also would restore the pay rate for the Certified First-Responder-Defibrillator refresher course over 40 hours, as well as the eight-hour Battalion Chief/Deputy Chief training day, to time-and-a-half. Mr. McDonnell said that one of the regrettable givebacks required under the previous contract was having to accept straight-time pay for that training.

The city would also increase its annuity fund contributions by $261 for all active employees effective next March 20, and upgrade it by the same amount on April 20, 2010. Beginning next March 20, the city would increase welfare-fund contributions for UFOA retirees by $60 annually, and then by another $60 a year beginning April 20, 2010. On that latter date, there would also be a $50 boost in the city's contributions for each active UFOA member.

Mayor: 'A Good Deal'

During the radio show, Chief McDonnell told Mr. Bloomberg's co-host, John Gambling, that the four-year deal - slightly shorter than the last 50-month, 19-day pact but longer than previous contracts - had allowed the two sides "to address issues that we might not have been able to address in a two-year contract."

"This is a good contract for them," Mr. Bloomberg said. "I hope their members see it that way."

The UFOA will hold membership meetings July 24 - the day this newspaper hits the stands - at 1 p.m. and 7 p.m. at a Queens catering hall to explain its provisions.

Chief McDonnell expressed confidence that they would react favorably to the deal. He stated in a letter sent to his rank and file that he had pledged to get a settlement "that would remove most of the pain we all endured in the last contract. I sincerely feel that we have accomplished that goal and have a settlement that will appeal to everyone."