The first words out of Randi Weingarten’s mouth at the massive municipal union rally outside City Hall were, “This is solidarity.”
It wasn’t just rhetoric on the part of the teachers-union president. She united thousands of cops, firefighters and educators in an impressive show of force Tuesday to protest the administration’s refusal to offer raises exceeding the skimpy pattern set with District Council 37.
The demonstration garnered headlines, but it did little to shift the balance of power in the stalled contract talks.
“The mayor always has the upper hand,” conceded one labor insider. “The Taylor Law [barring strikes by municipal workers here] gives tremendous weight to the status quo. Leverage is definitely limited.”
With the cops at impasse and teachers applying for impasse, arbitrators are likely to dictate the terms of new contracts for both groups.
In this arena, the contract Bloomberg signed with DC 37 presents other unions with a big problem.
DC 37 agreed to accept lower starting salaries for two years to fund the last year of a three-year contract for its 121,000 members.
“No union leader outside DC 37 can go back to their members with that kind of package,” said one union source.
But the city is certain to insist that arbitrators take the DC 37 pattern into consideration in any deliberations involving cops and teachers.
The best chance cops have at arbitration is to argue that NYPD salaries are inadequate compared to neighboring jurisdictions. Port Authority cops, for example, make 30 percent more. Even in Newark, they earn 20 percent more.
The Web site policepay.net reports that cops’ salaries here rank 138th out of 200 departments cited nationwide.
”’Union leaders hope that argument outweighs the city’s insistence that the DC 37 pattern must hold.
In 2002, cops in arbitration won only slightly more than correction officers received in negotiations.
It looks like cops, teachers and firefighters have their work cut out for them this time.
(p. 21 in metro)