The PBA also called for disbanding the Office of Collective Bargaining (OCB), saying that it no longer served a useful purpose in labor negotiations. We argued that all contractual issues should be heard before PERB because OCB arbitrators are essentially working for the city, preventing unions from getting a fair shake. OCB offices are in city facilities and the agency relies on the city administration for its support. OCB arbitrators are clearly not impartial, which explains the agency’s lopsided record: 27 pro-city decisions in 27 cases heard.

United Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten responded to the PBA’s City Council testimony about disbanding OCB in a letter to The New York Sun. Without citing a single example to support her conclusion, she wrote:

“As chair of the Municipal Labor Committee, I have many dealings with the OCB and find the agency to be fair and reasonable. Many of my colleagues would say the same.” (With a 27-0 score in favor of the city?)

This is a clear example of a union leader doing the city’s bidding and undermining her fellow union members’ interests.

In this uneven playing field, the PBA has no choice but to continue to negotiate in good faith and, if necessary, fight all the way through binding arbitration again. That’s what real union leaders do. They have the courage to fight for their members — even when they’re standing alone.

ve always believed that union leaders were elected to fight for the best interest of their members. And I emphasize the word, fight. So it seems strange that, with the exception of the Sergeants Benevolent Association, other union leaders — especially police union leaders — have folded without a fight under Mayor Bloomberg’s insistence that they must pay for their own raises.

It makes you wonder if they believe attending a baseball game with the mayor is more important than the interests of their members.

The PBA believes that the members come first, whether it’s at the bargaining table with the city or at the Municipal Labor Committee (MLC), fighting to maintain health care benefits for our members.

It is because of this philosophy that we will never be accepted by the city or the other union leaders.

The PBA started negotiating the last round in the belief that our members earned and deserved a significant raise.

We felt that any interpretation of the Taylor law justified a significant raise for our members just to satisfy the like-pay-for-like-work provision of the law. So when the mayor proclaimed that there would be no pay raises that were not paid for by “productivity improvements,” the PBA took that for what it was — typical city tactics: pick off one union, then cry pattern bargaining and wait for the other unions to fall in line. We didn’t buy for a second that this union should have to pay for its own raises (and the arbitrator agreed, awarding us substantially more than the pattern) and we still don’t buy it.

Recently, we testified at City Council hearings and called for a resolution to be sent to Albany seeking a revision in the Taylor Law. As we explained at those hearings, the Taylor Law as currently constituted provides no incentive for the city to negotiate in good faith because it suffers no penalty if it doesn’t. The law penalizes only the unions — when we strike. We testified that the city, which earns interest on unpaid funds budgeted for raises, should be required to pay a 9% interest penalty for failing to achieve union contracts in a timely fashion, like the levy applied by the courts in certain civil cases.