Thursday, October 26, 2017

CITY PLAYING HARDBALL WITH THE PBA; EXPECT THE SAME FOR UFT

As the City of New York continues to enjoy a robust economy, Mayor Bill de Blasio's administration doesn't want to share any of the good times with their hard working employees.

The Chief Leader is reporting on the city's contract offer to the PBA:

 The Patrolmen's Benevolent Association appears to be bound for contract arbitration after the de Blasio administration on Oct. 18 presented a wage proposal of just 4.25 percent in raises over a 42-month period and asked the union to fund it by forsakiing key benefits including its annuity fund and the right of future members to a Variable Supplments Fund, while also providing its share of $2.4 billion in health-care givebacks that will be sought from all municipal unions.

Further down is this gem:

PBA President Patrick J. Lynch, in a letter to union members that was obtained by this newspaper, wrote that "the city's own negotiators confirmed that their intention is to provide PBA members with 42 months of net-zero raises, and that any wage increases must be 100% paid for through a list of givebacks."

That means the city is proposing a pattern of 0% for municipal employee raises.This is unbelievable considering the financial state of the city but very believable because of the complete weakness of the labor movement in NYC, including the PBA.

The PBA will almost certainly have their contract settled in binding arbitration. The ICEBLOG predicts they won't get far there. The ICE crystal ball shows arbitration will do the PBA little good because before their case is heard, the city knows they can just bring in a pathetic municipal union such as the UFT or DC 37 who they will offer a few crumbs to and one of these unions will jump at it. It will set a wage pattern so all of the other city unions will be stuck with whatever that pattern is. Pattern bargaining has been upheld by arbitrators for decades. The uniform unions like the PBA may get 1% more than whatever that abysmal civilian pattern is but you get the idea.

While the city economy is outperorming the nation, we all know the financial gloom and doom is coming since labor contracts are due. Ours expires November 30, 2018. The city is projecting budget deficits of $3.4 billion for 2019, $2.8 billion in 2020 and $2.3 billion in 2021. They will close those gaps in part by setting a lousy pattern for contract raises. The city is also forecasting that they will be increasing salary spending by 10.3% over the next four fiscal years but they believe fringe benefit spending will rise by 23.7%. Hence, the city will cry poverty and insist on givebacks that the UFT/DC 37 will buy hook line and sinker and then sell to us. Count on it. They will more than likely blame Donald Trump's federal budget for the situation.

UFT will then claim a huge contract victory because they will say the city wanted to fund 0% raises and we got got them to agree to fund something, however small it is.

Why do the unions continually accept the city's budget propaganda that leads to subpar wage and benefit settlements in every contract for city workers? The answer is simple:

None of the unions have any leverage because the city knows we will never threaten any kind of job action. Workers that cannot or will not stand up for themselves are at the mercy of their employer.

It will only get worse after the Supreme Court allows public sector workers to opt out of union dues next year. We will be even weaker.




    18 comments:

    Anonymous said...

    Let the other unions negotiate first! If the stupid UFT gets us a shitty contract by being first line line it will just be one more reason to get more people to quit paying UFT dues after Janus.

    Anonymous said...

    what happened to the 5% over 28 months plus $500 twu got? that is far better than anything we have or will get.

    Anonymous said...

    And still not good at all.

    Anonymous said...

    I wonder if mulgrew knows every other union in this city hates him

    Anonymous said...

    And if backloaded, like last time, you have to stay longer or get nothing. Lets say its 8% over 4 years. 0 plus 1 plus 2 plus 5. Mulgrew can then say I got you 2% a year.

    Anonymous said...

    Those were of course rough numbers, probably will get 1%-1.5% per year.

    Anonymous said...

    Remember when 3-4% a year was a thing?

    jeff said...

    Right, after the last deal we got, that is the new normal, so the twu was certainly better. We would be lucky to get 2.5% times 4, plus $1k lump sum signing bonus. How sad.

    Anonymous said...

    Haha, I'd actually be amazed if we got 10% in 4 years. Kind of sad I suppose.

    Bronx ATR said...

    I'd like to trade in Mulgrew for Pat Lynch. I'd even take Anthony Weiner. If he has to do prison time he might as well do it as the president of the UFT - we'd all be greatful for president that exposes his true intentions to the rank and file.

    Anonymous said...

    Carlos Danger for UFT President.

    Anonymous said...

    "You'll get nothing and like it!"

    James Eterno said...

    Pat Lynch at least stands up for his members. As for getting a good deal, he is as useless as the others. He screams a lot but the PBA always loses at arbitration because of pattern bargaining. They need a job action as much as anyone else.

    Anonymous said...

    Umm James, PBA doing a job action? Those are police officers. What do you expect them them to do? Pull a sick out? Slow down arrests? These are cops that protect us. The public has faith in these people and does not want to live in fear due to union politics. I am as hardcore as you in believing that we as teachers need to do something to get a fair contract but striking or pulling a job action is not the way to do it. (At least in the sense of a full on strike) There is a reason why the Taylor Law is in effect. The public needs and expects us to show up every day because if we don't. chaos will happen. A better idea would be to pull a fair and legal job action such as if NYC teachers decide to show up exactly at the start of the school day and leave exactly at the time of dismissal. We could refuse to help out with anything other than what is in our job description. No more parent phone calls after work, no more writing letters of recommendation for college applications, no more talking to parents on the sidewalk in front of schools before or after work. NO MORE NOTHING. Actions such as these would get the attention of the public of NYC and get people really pissed at city hall and it would all be legal. We signed up for this job knowing that striking is illegal and therefore we should not even consider that regardless of how crappy the city treats us. However, nothing should or could stop us from engaging in the minimal amount of work that we could do that would still put a big strain on the school system in NYC.

    Harris L. said...

    That is the clearest statement of the City's collective bargaining strategy that I've read in a long time--and you know that I've followed the arcane details of the City budget for many years. The City is loaded with cash but always cooks the books in the year before contracts begin to expire.

    At contract negotiation time, a "budget committee" is established with members from the Office of Labor Relations and the UFT to agree on the economic and budget parameters that underlie the negotiation. Every time, the UFT lays down for the City and gives away the store by accepting the dubious and poverty-struck projections from the Office of Management and Budget...game over before the game begins.

    As to the TWU, it has the great good fortune to negotiate its contract directly with the MTA, a state agency, and though its contracts can be used to support a "pattern" for the City the TWU contract is in a separate category from all City contracts.

    Anonymous said...

    Pat Lynch is against the mayor. I don’t believe that what he says is true. Let’s see what the deals are after the election.

    This reminds me of when people kept posting anti Hillary things and didn’t think about who was behind it.

    I’m sure they will play hardball and Mulgrew will try to sell a turd sandwich to us, I just think this sounds (ironically) like fake news.

    Anonymous said...

    Anon 8:21 Re: PBA...The public should also expect the city to give decent benefits and fair raises to its employees. The public shouldn't expect the service if they are not willing to pay for it. Roseanne McCosh

    James Eterno said...


    8:21, I believe PERB has ruled that teachers not doing recommendations or after school activities is a violation of the Taylor Law. If you are going to do a job action, you may as well do it for real although certainly we can build to that by staying within the law.

    As for the police, back in the eighties when the police had a real union they refused to write tickets or arrest anyone citywide unless it was very serious. You better believe the city backed down. After 20 years of Bloomberg and Giuliani, I don't think the PBA has that kind of solidarity these days, just like us. Labor needs to wake up if it wants to get anywhere. We have been so beaten down.