To All Delegates and Members

August 21, 2008

I am pleased to inform you that we have a tentative agreement for the contract covering August 1, 2006 to July 31, 2010. 

We have achieved a package of benefits valued by the PBA at well in excess of 20%.  Salary will increase at every step of the schedule by a compounded 16.98% bringing our total basic maximum pay in the contract’s last year to $76,488.  Considering other forms of pay (including longevity, holiday pay, night differential and uniform allowance) our average monetary compensation after 20 years will rise to over $94,000.

As part of this agreement, we have negotiated a historic provision that links longevity pay and the city’s contribution to the health and welfare fund to all future general wage increases.  For the first time in this great union’s history, your longevity pay and the city’s contribution to the health and welfare fund will automatically increase by the same percentage as the general wage increase.  As a result, your longevity pay will grow exponentially while providing for the fiscal stability of our welfare benefits package for active and retired officers for years to come.  Prior to this agreement, longevity pay and the city’s contribution to the welfare fund did not increase along with general wage increases and had to be negotiated separately in each round often remaining static.

The agreement also restores the range day, adds a provision allowing mutual exchanges of tours and eases home confinement provisions while out sick.  For officers hired since July 2008 and for all future officers, it restores three vacation days in their 3rd, 4th and 5th years and increases starting pay to nearly $42,000 in the last year of the contract.

It is my belief that this contract represents the very best agreement we could negotiate on your behalf.  I strongly encourage you to ratify it when your ballot arrives.

Fraternally,
Patrick J. Lynch
President

Click here to see the specific provisions of the contract.