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POWER, INFLUENCE & PERSUASION POLICE CONTRACT NEGOTIATIONS FOR THE 21ST CENTURY OCTOBER 25 & 26, 2007
POLICEPAY.NET
SERVICES (Click on service name for information and
pricing) Opening
negotiations with proposals is the quickest route to impasse. Think about how this is normally done. You present proposals on the first day of
negotiations and then immediately go into a sales pitch based on fairness and
equity, only to have it rebuffed by the city’s negotiator. Two things are wrong with this
scenario. First, tying to introduce a
solution (proposal) before identifying the problem that your solution seeks
to rectify is foolish. Second, an
argument based on fairness and equity is absolutely the worst case that can
be made. The city is not motivated by
such pleas. Success
relies on first rolling out the problem and identifying the cause. Only then should you present the solution
(proposal). The problem has to be a
problem for the city, not you. Your being over-worked and under-paid is not a problem for
the city. For your negotiations to
have the best chance of success, you must make the argument (the case) before
presenting the solution (proposal). For
further explanation of this and many other negotiating tips, plan to buy The Police Negotiator’s Handbook,
POLICEPAY’s new book which will be available later
this summer. This book is written by
Ron York, POLICEPAY.NET president, and is based on nearly forty years of
experience with public safety negotiations. Police get
14% hike in pay in contract Healthcare costs set to increase From the A new four-year contract would give Boston police officers a 14
percent pay hike but require them to pay more for health care, city officials
said yesterday. Mayor Thomas M. Menino called the
contract, which will be retroactive to July, "a win for both
sides." The contract, which the city and union negotiators agreed on
Thursday, would also allow officers to live outside the city after a decade
of service, shift about two dozen officers from behind their desks to the streets , and toughen drug testing rules. Menino said that
while the city had sought a lower pay hike, it had settled for 14 percent
because the union's 1,400 officers would shoulder an increase in their
contribution for health insurance costs, from 10 to 15 percent. State troopers also pay 15 percent ,
which is less than the 20 percent most city employees pay, said John Dunlap ,
the city's director of labor relations . "That was a big part of what we were seeking," Dunlap
said. "Ten to 15 years ago, healthcare was the backwater of labor
negotiations, but today, it is at the top of the list of issues." Yesterday, the terms of the contract were presented to the board
of the Boston Police Patrolmen's Association, which represents all officers
in the city, and it unanimously voted to present the contract to the union at
large June 18 for ratification, according to association president Thomas
Nee. Menino "had
issues he valued, and we had issues we valued, and there are always
consequences in that give and take," Nee said. "But we're pleased
with what we came away with." Police were among the highest-paid city employees last year,
according to city figures released to the Globe earlier this year. Of the 125
highest-paid employees, all but one were police
officers. In 2006, the average uniformed police officer made $113,617,
including $35,600 in detail and overtime. But union officials maintain that
the overtime and detail pay are not part of an officer's normal pay and can
fluctuate. The contract's pay increase and residency provisions are similar
to those in contracts recently ratified by the Service Employees
International Union and the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal
Employees, which together represent about 2,200 city workers. Dunlap predicted the loosening of the residency rule, which has
been on the union's wish list for a long time, would not translate into an
exodus of officers from the city. Under the current contract, an officer who fails an annual drug
test is suspended for 45 days without pay, must enter into a rehabilitation
agreement, and must submit to random drug tests for three years. Under the
new contract, the officer would have to submit to random tests for the rest
of his or her career. The new contract also calls for civilians to take over desk jobs
held by 23 officers, freeing them to patrol the streets. City and union negotiators met in at least 25 bargaining
sessions since the last contract expired in June 2006. Along the way, Menino and Nee mended a once-frayed relationship. A
highly publicized, bitter dispute between the two had resulted in police
picketing outside the Democratic National Convention in 2004, and an
arbitrator was called in to settle the terms of a contract, awarding the
officers a 14.5 percent pay raise over four years. "He understands it's not about the past, but about the
future," Menino said of Nee. "We both agreed
it was time to work together because we all want the same goals. A few years
ago there were some real issues there but not now." In Police
Hiring Crisis, Clouds of Contention From the New York Times, June 3, 2007 Any hope for a quick end to the long-running contract dispute
between Mayor Michael
R. Bloomberg and the city’s main police union seemed to vanish
last week when the union appealed a state official’s order for arbitration to
move forward. A top Bloomberg aide seized on that appeal to accuse the police
union, the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association, of
cynically delaying action in order to worsen the city’s crisis in recruiting
police officers. “I guess their view is that at some point if they can hurt the
department as much as they can, at some point the mayor will just change his
mind and we’ll just throw money at them,” said the aide, James F. Hanley, the
city’s labor commissioner. That, he said, is not going to happen. Rather, Mr. Hanley, the
city’s top labor negotiator, said the city will continue to do what it has
traditionally done: offer the police union the same percentage raises it has
offered the firefighters and other uniformed unions. The Police Department’s recruitment crisis is so serious — hurt
by the low starting salary of $25,100 — that there will be just 800 cadets in
the From City Hall’s view, the faster the contract dispute is
resolved, whether through arbitration or negotiation, the faster the city can
raise salaries for cadets and experienced police officers and the faster the
recruitment crisis will end. The patrolmen’s union says it is neither delaying resolution of
the dispute — the union’s contract expired 35 months ago — nor seeking to
worsen recruitment problems. Rather, the union argues that Mr. Bloomberg is
to blame for the recruitment crisis. Union officials say that the mayor has been far too stingy about
raising police pay, especially when police salaries are far higher in Patrick J. Lynch, the union’s president, said, “The problem can
be solved today if the mayor recognized the simple fact that only competitive
pay will keep the N.Y.P.D. adequately staffed.” Mr. Lynch’s goal is to pressure the
mayor into giving raises considerably larger than those received by the other
uniformed unions. The annual base pay rate for the city’s police rises to $32,700
after the first six months and tops out at $59,588 after five and a half
years. In Last week the union appealed a decision by Richard A. Curreri, a top official in the state’s Public Employment
Relations Board, in which he ordered the city and the union to select the
chairman of a three-person arbitration panel from a list of nine arbitrators. The union had originally refused to participate in the selection
process, arguing that two of the nine arbitrators were biased because a
decade ago they had joined a decision that ordered a two-year wage freeze for
police officers. That decision followed the pattern of wage freezes
previously established by District
Council 37 and other unions. Mr. Curreri had ruled that those two
arbitrators should remain on the list, saying they were respected figures —
one, Arnold M. Zack, is a former president of the National Mr. Hanley, the city labor commissioner, said the appeal was a
crass delaying tactic that was bound to fail. He asserted that if the police
union had not kept appealing one decision after another, the contract dispute
would have already been resolved and the union’s 23,000 members would already
have received raises. “At this point, I think he’s hurting his own members,” Mr.
Hanley said of Mr. Lynch. “They are delaying a raise.” But it is not at all evident that police officers believe that
Mr. Lynch is hurting their cause. Indeed, he recently ran unopposed for a
third four-year term. And on Friday, ballots were counted, in a formality
that affirmed his victory. Mr. Lynch says rank-and-file police officers agree with his
contention that they deserve a raise higher than the 4-percent-a-year pattern
received by other unions. He argues that 4 percent raises will in no way slow
the exodus of Mr. Lynch says he is seeking to knock the two arbitrators off
the list to maximize his union’s chances of getting an arbitration ruling
that awards the police more than the pattern obtained by other unions. Mr. Hanley predicted that an arbitration panel would award the
police union the same raise — 8.16 percent compounded over two years — that
the city granted to the Uniformed Firefighters Association in a contract
settlement in March. Noting there has been dollar-for-dollar pay parity
between the police and firefighters since 1898, Mr. Hanley said it was
doubtful arbitrators would turn their backs on that tradition. But Michael Murray, the union’s general counsel, argued that
neither Mr. Bloomberg nor an arbitration panel should be beholden to parity. “Why should parity matter when you’re approaching a situation
where people in the city are going to be endangered when the city can’t hire
enough police officers?” Mr. Murray said. “Why should we be handcuffed by an
arbitrary construct like parity?” Budget
slashes cops' pay raises
With public safety a top priority for "Most of the folks that get affected are the entry-level
employees; they're starting families, paying bills, buying houses, and
they're counting on the money," said Danny Hale, president of the
Nashville Fraternal Order of Police. "The mayor's got a budget to balance; I get that. But there
are other places that cuts can be made, and it does not have to be on public
safety." Mayor Bill Purcell has proposed giving all city employees a 3
percent pay raise next budget year and suspending pay raises based on factors
such as time in service and promotion. Currently, qualifying employees
receive those pay "step increases" in addition to an
across-the-board raise, which was 2 percent in 2007. The step increases apply mainly to young police officers and
firefighters, who were told during recruitment that they could count on step
increases every year for 10 years, or until their salaries reached a
"topping out" point. With the step increases, public safety employees who would
receive them — including more than 70 percent of police officers and 54
percent of firefighters — would have received a total raise of about 4
percent. Job cuts are alternative Metro Finance Director David Manning said the change in pay
structure was prompted by an unusually tight budget, adding that the change
will save the city almost $5 million next budget year. Manning warned that reversing the proposal could mean the loss
of 108 city jobs, 41 of which are in the public safety sector. "The issue is whether or not we want to cut the jobs of
some workers in order to increase the salaries of other workers,"
Manning said. "The only thing you can do is raise taxes, which both the
mayor and council have ruled out, or make tough choices." With the police force already understaffed and unable to attract
recruits, however, Hale called the possibility of 41 cuts an "idle
threat." He and other public safety employees, facing manpower shortages
and seeking new means of recruitment, said the elimination of step increases
would make attracting new recruits to their line of work a harder sell. Ron Dunaway, Metro police liaison officer between the department
and the Teamsters Law Enforcement League, explained that suspending step
increases for even one year could have a permanent effect on the maximum
salaries that new officers had expected, leaving them thousands of dollars
short in the long run. "That's a terrible thing for Mayor Purcell to do on his way
out the door," he said. Purcell's term ends this year. The ability to shift spending priorities fell to the Metro
Council on Tuesday, after the Civil Service Commission approved Purcell's budget
by a 3-2 vote. Council must act Union representatives for city employees, including public
safety officers, plan to voice their concerns to council members at a public
hearing Tuesday. The council must pass a new budget by the end of June. All the major candidates for mayor have said public safety will
be a top priority of their administration. The election will be in August,
with a runoff likely in September. Councilmen Rip Ryman, chairman of the council's Budget and
Finance Committee, and Jim Shulman agreed that
maintaining step increases would send a message to Metro employees that their
salaries are secure. Finding funds in next year's budget to maintain the
current pay system will be one of their top priorities, they said. "We're going to have to dig pretty hard to find those
resources," Shulman said. "I don't think
we've moved that much money in a while, but this is important." Many city employees outside the public safety sector have
expressed acceptance of Purcell's proposal, especially those for whom the
revised plan would secure a larger raise than expected. And Manning stressed
that the Metro government historically has done better than many private
businesses in accounting for inflation and maintaining competitive salaries. Many in the firefighting and police forces whose salaries are
beyond the 10-year topping-out point remain opposed to a suspension of step
increases. "I'm not saying the older people don't need a raise,
too," said Doug Conquest, who's been a firefighter for 32 years and is
the president of the Ytown labor pacts grant raises, more perks From the Vindicator, June 7, 2007 City council approved the contracts Wednesday with the
Youngstown Police Ranking Officers Unit and the Teamsters Local 277. The first union represents 66 police detective sergeants,
sergeants, detectives, lieutenants and captains and the latter represents 32
workers in 22 job classifications in the street department. The ranking officers will receive at least a 10.5 percent salary
increase over the three years. It could be higher, however. The contract states base pay for its lowest-paid members must be
at least 15 percent higher than the top rate for patrolmen. If it isn't, the
base rates for the brass will increase to that percentage. The patrolmen have
worked without a contract since Nov. 30, 2006. Ranking officers also received increased hazardous duty and
longevity pay and a higher uniform allowance. A fair settlement But the union agreed to pay 10 percent of its total monthly
health-care premiums with caps that increase every year. Under its former
deal with the city, members were paying 3 percent of the premiums with lower
caps. "It was a pretty fair settlement," said city Finance
Director David Bozanich. "We cleaned up a lot
of language on workers' compensation and management rights. We may have given
a little more than we wanted in terms of salary." The executive summary of the contract by the city says this
contract "was in poor shape structurally." Also, the summary stated this and the patrolmen's contracts'
"poor structure and language had put the city in a position where it
constantly had to address grievances over ambiguous language and spend
needless hours dealing with basic contract administration issues." The sides agreed to limit grievances to disputes that interpret
the contract. "Previously, the union could grieve virtually any
dispute," the executive summary states. Pay hike may help lure new police
officers From The New Mexican, June 5, 2007 City cops’
salaries would be highest in area if 6 percent increase is approved That’s according to a comparison of
starting salaries for officers with no experience and what those officers
would make after a year on the job at various area law-enforcement agencies,
including the Albuquerque Police Department, Rio Rancho Department of Public
Safety, New Mexico State Police and the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Department. Currently, If the recently negotiated 6 percent
raise is approved by union members today, the salary will jump to $15.10 an
hour to start and to $17.91 after a year. The raise would be the second pay
increase for police officers in the last year, following a $1.5 million
property tax increase meant to benefit public safety workers approved by the
City Council in August. The officers’ current contract is set
to expire June 30. Union representatives have said the new contract is
designed to help alleviate recruiting and retention woes that have plagued
the Santa Fe Police Department for the last two years. The department
currently has 18 vacancies. Of the five area agencies, the Santa
Fe County Sheriff’s Department pays the least. Deputies there start at $13.50
an hour and move to $15.05 an hour after a year. The department currently has
seven vacancies, said Sheriff Greg Solano. The next lowest starting salary for a
police officer with no experience is at the New Mexico State Police
Department, where such officers make $14.80. However, the number jumps to
$17.48 an hour after the officer completes the academy and has been on the
job for a year, said Peter Olson, a spokesman. State police do not allow
officers who have not yet attended the police academy to work as police
officers, Olson said. The Rio Rancho Department of Public
Safety starts officers at $14.96 an hour, which increases to $15.56 an hour
after a year, said John Francis, a spokesman. Members of the Santa Fe Police
Officers Association are scheduled to vote on the new contract today from 6
a.m. to 6 p.m. at the Fraternal Order of Police, Lauderdale
police say pay, staffing too low, violent crime up From the
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