NYC POLICE AND FIRE COALITION
|
|
August 19, 2004
For Immediate Release
|
Contact: PBA: Al O’Leary
917-613-0961
or UFA: Tom Butler
212-685-4600
or 203-253-1050
|
UNIONS SET THE RECORD STRAIGHT
Seated at a symbolic “negotiating table” police and
fire union leaders discussed a newspaper ad aimed at correcting
the Bloomberg administration’s misrepresentation of contract
negotiations and called on the Mayor to support expedited binding
arbitration for police and fire union contracts.
Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association president Patrick Lynch
said: “We have been willing and ready to negotiate but this
administration’s motto is that it’s their way or the
highway in their demands for givebacks. NYC police officers already
work more and longer days for less money than most big city police
departments and that’s why we have 5,000 fewer police officers
patrolling our streets today. There is a recruiting and retention
problem in the NYPD that only a fair raise will begin to solve.
If the Mayor is not willing to negotiate a fair raise he should
at least support expedited binding arbitration to settle this issue
with the people who keep New York safe.”
Uniformed Firefighters Association president Steve Cassidy said:
"I have been available 24/7 to meet with this Mayor to negotiate
a fair wage for firefighters, who have worked faithfully without
a contact since May 31, 2002. The city's response has been to drag
its feet for over a year before coming to the bargaining table.
Now we still have the same offer of 4 percent over 3 years as we
did on day-one of negotiations in December 2003. When people around
this nation hear the truth about the Mayor's treatment of New York
City Firefighters they are shocked."
The Police and Fire Coalition has purchased full
page ads in major daily newspapers to counter the administration’s
misinformation.
###
|
