New Yorkers and Republican operatives have been having a chuckle lately at the expense of Mayor Menino of Boston. Mr. Menino, whose city will host the Democratic National Convention this summer, has been locked in a contract fight with the roughly 1,500 members of the Boston Police Patrolmen’s Association. That police union is threatening to call for a boycott of the Democratic National Convention if it does not reach a satisfactory deal with the mayor on a pay increase.

The average Boston police patrolman already brings home $77,948 a year, which is a pretty hefty sum for a government employee. The union is reportedly looking for an increase of about 25% over three years. The city might be expected to settle for an increase of 11.5% over four years, the pattern of a draft agreement recently reached with a union representing police detectives. The patrolmen have been without a contract since June 30, 2002.

Mr. Menino has so far wisely and courageously put the interests of the taxpayers of Boston ahead of the short-term convenience of the Democratic Party, which lies in a convention with no labor troubles. It’s an example for our own Mayor Bloomberg and Schools Chancellor Klein to keep in mind as they seek to renegotiate the contract with the United Federation of Teachers in a way that provides for more sensible and efficient management of the schools.

For the principle of not giving away the store in Boston, Mr. Menino is willing to risk the wrath of his own party leadership and the public disarray that might come with having police take some kind of job action at the convention. The worry seems to be that this will somehow hurt the Democratic Party. But if the Democrats indeed plan to appeal to independent voters by criticizing President Bush as a big spender, a fiscally responsible Boston mayor as a convention host may actually reinforce the campaign theme.

Here in New York, the teachers union and its allies have the ability to create plenty of headaches for Mr. Bloomberg and Mr. Klein. But here, too, if the mayor and his schools chancellor stand their ground, we don’t doubt that there is a potential political upside to the equation as well. In neither Boston nor New York is the point to alienate labor merely for the sake of alienating labor. It is to show that just as private-sector unions have to negotiate with management that has a genuine fiduciary responsibility to shareholders, public-sector unions are going to be met at the bargaining table by politicians who take their responsibilities to the taxpayers just as seriously.