City Unions Rush To Match Salary Bump Won by Police
The city's uniformed unions are already clamoring for raises to match the major salary bump given police this week in what is likely to be a blow to the city's already tight budget.
The president of the Uniformed Firefighters Association, Stephen Cassidy, said he would go back to rework his union's 2006 contract, a move that could spark other unions to do the same.
"We expect to do it. The mayor has the money. He's already acknowledged it's going to cost the city more," Mr. Cassidy said yesterday at an afternoon news conference. "We're going to go in as quickly as we can and begin negotiations."
The money could add up to as much as $185 million, including the $50 million the city will pay police, if the four other police unions, firefighters, sanitation workers, and other uniformed unions seek to match the raise won by the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association.
The Bloomberg administration has threatened cuts to a property tax break to fund the rise in salaries.
Mr. Cassidy said the union is halting its current negotiations for a contract covering 2008 through 2010 to go back and reopen its contract covering 2004 through 2006, when it accepted a raise of just more than 6%.
Members of the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association, the city's largest police union, are getting a nearly 10% raise for that period under the decision announced Monday, and new recruits will see their first-year salaries rise by more than $10,000.
Traditionally during a contract period, the city tries to negotiate deals for each union that match the deals with other unions for the same period, a practice known as pattern bargaining.
Other unions have already signaled they will follow the firefighters union's lead.
The president of the Uniformed Sanitationmen's Association, Harry Nespoli, said he is "definitely going in again" in order "to see what we can do as far as generating more money for my members."
