Thursday, September 27, 2007
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Providence (RI) Wins 3% Raise in Arbitration Youngstown (OH) Officers Reject Fact Finder Lake Charles (LA) Approves 3 Year Contract Grand Island (NE) Negotiations Go Public La Mesa (CA) Officers Get 6% Raise |
From the Baltimore Sun, September 27, 2007
Baltimore police overwhelmingly approved a one-year contract with the city that includes a 5 percent pay raise and the testing of a four-day work week, city and police union officials confirmed yesterday.
In November, officers in the Northeast District will begin working a 10-hour-a-day four-day shift instead of the eight-hour-a-day, six-day stint which has been in place for 50 years, according to Paul M. Blair Jr., the president of the city's Fraternal Order of Police union.
The change in schedule, which could be implemented in the eight other districts by next year, was ratified by more than 80 percent of the officers in what was the largest turnout in the past four contracts, according to Blair. The Northeast District will test the schedule for 90 to 120 days.
"It shows how much the men and women are excited to get the new work schedule," Blair said.
Blair said the schedule should help fight crime by putting more officers on the streets during night-time hours. The evening shift is to go from 4 p.m. to 2 a.m., while the late shift is scheduled to begin at 9 p.m. and last until 7 a.m.
"The biggest winners will be citizens of Baltimore," Blair said. "The extra police during peak time will hopefully help combat crime."
City officials also expressed relief over the terms of the new contract.
"Personally, I'm very pleased that we reached an agreement with the FOP. It is a one-year agreement, and come January, we'll be back at the table again," said Deborah Moore-Carter, the city's labor commissioner.
Blair said he was disappointed that the contract did not include more money. With the raise, the starting salary for an officer is $41,058.
While that is not far off from surrounding districts, Blair said, veteran officers with eight or more years' experience will still tend to make 15 percent less than their counterparts in the state police and in Baltimore, Howard and Anne Arundel counties.
Providence police to get retroactive raise
From the Providence Journal, September 26, 2007
PROVIDENCE, R.I. --Providence police officers are getting a retroactive pay raise. An arbitration board yesterday ruled that city police were entitled to a three percent pay raise for the 2004-2005 fiscal year.
The city's police officers have been working without a contract since 2004. The city had offered a 1.5 percent pay increase, but the police union wanted a 4.5 percent hike.
Yesterday's decision followed 18 days of hearings over two years.
Under the board's ruling, police officers will be required to make higher co-pays for some health care costs.
The ruling will cost the city $1.9 million in retroactive pay and salary increases.
Police contract heads to binding arbitration
From the Vindicator, September 20, 2007
City council unanimously endorsed the contract.
YOUNGSTOWN - With the city's police patrol officers union's rejection of a fact finder's recommendations on a new contract, the two sides are heading to binding arbitration.
But Mayor Jay Williams and Edward Colon, president of the police union, said they are also interested in the two sides' resuming negotiations to resolve the matter while they wait to appoint an arbitrator.
The 117-member union rejected the fact finder's recommendations, said Colon, who declined to give the vote total except to say it was "overwhelmingly no."
The report from fact finder Michael Paolucci of Cincinnati addressed 26 unresolved issues, including salary, health-care contributions, residency, sick leave, retirement and severance, discipline and employee parking.
The fact finder sided with the city on most of the issues.
The Youngstown Police Association's bargaining team didn't offer a recommendation to the general membership about the report before the vote, Colon said. Instead, the report was distributed to the members, who read it and then voted no, he said.
When asked what the membership specifically objected to in the report, Colon said that health care was a big concern but that there were plenty of other issues.
Council endorsement
The union counted the votes Tuesday. On Wednesday, city council unanimously endorsed the contract. The city administration had urged the contract be recommended.
"We believe it is very reasonable," Williams said.
Unlike the fact-finder report, arbitration is binding.
It probably will take a couple of months before arbitration begins, Colon said.
The patrol officer's union has worked without a contract since Nov. 30, 2006.
The city offered annual pay raises of 1.5 percent for three years. The union wanted 4.5-percent annual raises.
Paolucci recommended the union receive a 3-percent raise, retroactive to Dec. 1, 2006; then a 4.5-percent raise in the contract's second year; and 3 percent in the final year. That's the same pay raises the city gave its ranking officers union in June.
The city wanted to increase the patrol officers' health-insurance premium contribution from 7 percent to 10 percent. The premiums have monthly caps the city wanted to raise significantly higher than the current limits. The union wanted a minor cap increase.
Lake Charles approves police union contract
From the Associated Press, September 20, 2007
Lake Charles police will receive bigger paychecks starting in the next pay period as the police union's new three-year contract was approved in a 6-0 City Council vote.
Starting pay for new officers will rise from $12.50 to $12.85 per hour.
Veteran officers are guaranteed a 7 percent increase the first year of the contract and 4 percent increases in each of the following two years.
If the department holds overtime costs to under $700,000 a year, officers will get an additional 3 percent raise in each of the last two years of the contract.
Police Chief Don Dixon asked the council to be flexible in what it allows him to do in order to manage the department's overtime. He says he will adjust his management style in an effort to keep overtime from exceed
City Hall 'Fiasco'
From The Grand Island Independent, September 27, 2007
Grand Island City Council President Bob Meyer is frustrated.
He believes the city is being unfair in union negotiations which is unfairly costing taxpayers money and that the mayor is trying to shut down communication about the unfairness.
"It's a fiasco," Meyer said Wednesday. "I don't feel the city is negotiating in good faith."
Two union contracts expire at midnight Sunday night one representing firefighters and one for police officers. Another contract representing parks and streets workers was approved Tuesday night, but Meyer abstained from the vote saying he objected to the wages in the contract even though the union OK'd the contract.
Meyer said the wages were set by comparing only to cities smaller than Grand Island.
Such a practice flies in the face of Grand Island's already established practice of using bigger cities' salaries as a comparison for setting its own department director salaries, Meyer said.
"We set the precedent for upper and middle management," he said.
On top of all that, Meyer said the city's elected leaders the 10 members of the city council have been directed to not have any communication with city union members.
"I think it's a gag order," Meyer said of the directive that came from Mayor Margaret Hornady and City Attorney Dale Shotkoski. "We've been told not to talk with any members of the union. I say 'you can't tell me not to talk to these people. I represent these people.'"
"There is no 'gag order,'" Hornady said Wednesday.
But she also made clear that there are only three members of the city's union negotiation team Shotkoski, Human Resources Director Brenda Sutherland and Finance Director David Springer.
"It is not appropriate for the council the legislative body, if you will, of the city to be negotiating a management issue," Hornady said.
"If Bob Meyer has those issues to discuss then I suggest he start with me," she said. "He hasn't been in to see me. He hasn't come to talk to me about it. If he thinks I have done that then I am the one he needs to talk to."
Meyer said he did bring the issue up at a council meeting this summer but was shut down under the council's rules of parliamentary procedure.
"I will not be intimidated," Meyer said. "I will not stop talking to these unions or any member of any union in Grand Island. These are taxpaying citizens."
Meyer, a retired firefighter himself, has talked with members of the firefighters union and learned a labor contract offer was presented to the city that was never brought to the city council. The more than year-long labor dispute with the International Association of Firefighters union ended in a costly case before the Nebraska Commission of Industrial Relations.
Meyer believes the city council should know about contract offers from either side since the council has the final approval authority over the contracts.
Meyer also believes the city council "doesn't understand what's been going on" because city staff is withholding information about the negotiations.
Councilman John Gericke, a retired police officer, said he too is frustrated. He requested to be a part of negotiations with the police union, but was denied.
"I don't feel council is actually having enough input into it," Gericke said. "We get reports, but they are pretty vague and I don't think council is putting enough direction into it."
Even the police union and firefighters union have requested council involvement. Firefighter negotiator John Mayer asked for an opportunity to speak to the council in an open public meeting this summer and was denied a slot on the agenda.
Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) union negotiator Dale Hilderbrand asked for the mayor or a council member to be a part of their negotiations.
"My request was denied by the mayor," Hilderbrand said.
Hilderbrand said he was also directed by the mayor to have no communication with council member and any council member who tried to talk to him about union talks were to be reported to the mayor.
Meyer said that flies in the face of the First Amendment.
"You can't tell me who I can and cannot talk to," he said.
But who Meyer should be talking to is the mayor, Hornady said.
"If Bob Meyer is upset, tell him to come see me, he's a big boy," Hornady said. "What is Bob? Is Bob a union member or an elected city council member? Is Bob elected to take care of his constituents in the entire city or is he elected to take care of the IAFF?"
Hornady said the city "absolutely" has negotiated in good faith. She was less than enthused about Meyer's request that new City Administrator Jeff Pederson, who started at City Hall on Monday, become a lead on the city's union negotiation team.
"Perhaps that will happen after the new city administrator has a chance to be in town for a little while and gets to know the lay of the land," Hornady said. "In the meantime there's just a ton of things for the new city administrator to do that I think he needs to apply himself to before he jumps in the middle of a negotiation that should have ended a long time ago if the IAFF wanted to negotiate. Ditto," for the FOP she said.
Hornady listed getting to know the staff, the city construction projects, city budget and general familiarity with the town as Pederson's current priorities.
Meyer said he feels badly that city employees police, firemen and street workers cleaning up after storms are being called heroes in one breath and "money grubbers" in the next.
He fears this weekend's end to two contracts could open the door for another technique of the city implementing a "last best offer" that workers must adhere to until there's a legal challenge.
"It's not fair," Meyer said. "The city's last best offer is being used as a club because the city doesn't want to negotiate fairly."
Police get 6 percent raise; union sought 10 percent
From the UNION-TRIBUNE, September 20, 2007
LA MESA - After grappling for three hours Tuesday night, the La Mesa City Council approved a 6 percent raise for police officers.
It granted a 3 percent hike for nonsworn personnel.
The police union was seeking a 10 percent raise for both groups.
The 3-2 vote for the one-year contract was supported by Mayor Art Madrid and Councilmen Ernest Ewin and Mark Arapostathis. Council members Ruth Sterling and Dave Allan were opposed.
"We value our police officers like we value all our other employees," Madrid said yesterday. "And they can be assured if we had the revenue, we would be able to be more competitive with other cities."
The raises took effect immediately.
Gary Ameling, the city's administrative services director, said the city will pay $433,500 during the 2008 fiscal year that runs through June 30.
The city has 64 officers and 23 nonsworn support staff in the Police Department.
Before the meeting, the La Mesa Police Officers Association had sent letters to thousands of La Mesa residents noting that La Mesa police were paid the least among 11 law enforcement agencies countywide.
Yesterday, union President Tim Cook expressed frustration over the city's decision. "We're definitely not happy with it," Cook said. "But we did have an overwhelming show of support from the people of La Mesa."
About 150 people attended the council meeting, Cook said, and the union also received many e-mails and phone calls offering support.
Since the meeting, four officers have told him they are seeking employment elsewhere, Cook said. Nine officers have left the department since the start of 2007.
The annual base pay for a rookie officer in La Mesa has increased to $56,800 from $53,600, while the yearly pay for a top-ranked sergeant has risen to $93,500 from $88,200, Ameling said.
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