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July 23, 2004
Point Finger at Mayor
Garden Protesters: We Can’t Keep Up
By Mark Daly
Strictly speaking, Police Officer Peter Hatzoglou is a bit overqualified
to be driving a patrol car. He joined the Police Department with
a four-year college degree, or twice the number of required credits,
and will soon have a master’s degree in criminal justice from
Long Island University.
But 41/2 years into his NYPD career, he’s still climbing
the salary ladder to an officer’s top pay of $54,048.
‘Still Living at Home’
As he stood on the sidewalk across from Madison Square Garden July
19, a protest sign dangling from a cord around his neck, the Queens
officer said he’d been struck by the emerging contrast between
himself and his friends from his undergraduate years at the State
University of New York at Albany.
“Three of my college room-mates are lawyers. They’re
moving out, getting their own places, while I’m still living
at home,” he said.
A dispiriting gap between their salaries and those of professional
colleagues elsewhere is driving cops, firefighters and Teachers
onto the sidewalk to protest, union officials said last week as
they launched a round-the-clock “informational picket line”
outside the Garden during preparations for next month’s Republican
National Convention.
“At this point in time, this is the center of the world,”
Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association President Patrick J. Lynch
said, referring the build-up to the GOP’s nomination of President
Bush during the Aug. 30 - Sept. 2 convention.
The protesters are seeking to embarrass Mayor Bloomberg into reaching
agreements in their stalled contracts talks. Police officers and
firefighters have been working under an expired contract for two
years, and the Teachers’ contract expired last year.
“We don’t have enough Teachers. We’re losing
cops and firefighters in record numbers” to retirement or
other agencies, Mr. Lynch said, “We need the people of this
city to help us to send a message to this Mayor.”
‘Waste of Time’
Mr. Bloomberg’s reaction to the launch of the protest was
swift and sharp. “We don’t have any extra money,”
he said during an appearance at a Bronx park the day the protests
began. “Going and picketing – informational or any kind
of picketing around Madison Square Garden – seems to me to
just be wasting everybody’s time and drives everybody further
apart.”
The Mayor went on to praise the “responsible leaders”
of District Council 37, who negotiated a three-year agreement that
provides a $1,000 bonus instead of a raise in its first year, followed
by 5 percent in salary; increases.
Part of DC 37’s raise is funded by cutbacks in pay and benefits
to newly hired workers, an approach the protesting unions have rejected.
Uniformed Firefighters’ Association President Stephen J.
Cassidy said he’s approached Republicans across the country
to explain his union’s fight. “They’re astounded,”
he said. “They can’t understand why a Republican Mayor
brought them to town and left them holding the bag.”
UFT: City’s Dancing
Randi Weingarten, the president of the United Federation of Teachers,
accused the city of “tap dancing” around salary issues
in its negotiations with her union. “They’re not doing
anything at the bargaining table,” she charged.
Last Friday the dispute continued to simmer, as the police and
fire unions unveiled mobile billboards slamming “Billionaire
Bloomberg” and threatened to continue the picketing through
the convention itself.
“You got to remember a lot of this is not driven by what
the union members want,” Mr. Bloomberg opined on his Friday
radio show. “It’s driven by the union leaders who are
running for re-election.”
The Mayor predicted that workers would get tired of their leaders
“yelling and screaming” and would vote in new officials
who would negotiate a contract.
“It is very Republican that he would go so personal and not
speak to the issues.” Ms. Weingarten told Newsday.
PBA: Thanks, Mike
“We would like to thank the Mayor for getting the union leadership
re-elected three years from now,” quipped Al O’Leary,
a spokesman for Mr. Lynch.
The cops and firefighters on the picket line said they are seeing
the effects of Mr. Bloomberg’s hard line in their paychecks.
Officer Hatzoglou made $44,000 last year by working overtime shifts
– many not by choice, he noted. He was scheduled for another
overtime shift after his picketing was through “They bring
you in on your days off to work parades and street festivals. You
don’t get the days you want,” Mr. Hatzoglou explained.
On Friday morning, four days after the protest began, men wearing
PBA and UFA t-shirts surrounded two sides of the Garden. Most stood
at 20-foot intervals, obeying an agreement between the unions and
the NYPD to avoid blocking foot traffic or deliveries to and from
the building.
Frank Giordano, a Firefighter on the picket line, spent nearly
six years as a police officer in Staten Island, before switching
to the FDNY last December.
No House in Sight
City labor rules and the longstanding pay-parity arrangement between
the NYPD and FDNY allowed Mr. Giordano to avoid a pay cut when he
changed jobs, but he has already maxed out his allowable overtime
in the FDNY and expects to make the same in salary as last year,
about $52,000.
The switch hasn’t made it any easier for the 28-year-old
single firefighter to afford a house in Staten Island, he said.
“Even in the bad neighborhoods, they want $350,000,”
he said with disgust. “I just reached top pay. I’ve
got a lot of socking away to do.”
He’s seen senior firefighters in his firehouse, including
one with five children, work two and three jobs as handymen or house
builders to support their family.
“The way I look at it, there’s only three ways to make
a living,” the Staten Islander said. “You can join the
corporate world and get up at 5 in the morning to take the ferry.
You can be in construction as a contractor and work hard every day,
or you can risk your life every day.
“You shouldn’t have to work a combination of the three
out of necessity,” he said.
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