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March 13, 2008 Dear Fellow Members: PERB UPDATESince the last update, our legal team has prepared and submitted the PBA’s written closing argument and our response to the city’s case. The final document was delivered to the PERB panel on March 12th as directed by the panel’s chairperson. The City, for its part, challenged the arbitrator from the outset saying there are two options — pattern or no pattern. According to the city “the choice is just that stark” and that there is “no middle ground, no way to issue an award that gives the PBA more than pattern while pretending through verbiage or gloss or declared special circumstances, that there should be no impact on any other bargaining relationship.” According to the City, “every union played by the rules and now the PBA seeks to change them.” The city called “the PBA’s temerity” truly stunning and reinforced the 3% and 3.15% pattern leaving no room for compromise. It was exactly this attitude that pervaded all of our pre-arbitration negotiations and forced this contract to the PERB panel. The PBA’s case focused on the very Taylor Law that empowers this panel to decide this contract. We demonstrated conclusively that, regardless of which set of comparators you use either local or national, there is a gross disparity in pay that exists between us and other jurisdictions. Our case demonstrated how in the past two PERB arbitrations the so-called “pattern” was broken without the “nuclear meltdown in labor relations” predicted by the City in both cases. We also made a very strong and persuasive argument that the City clearly has the ability to pay its police officers a fair market rate of pay but lacks the will to do so and that pattern bargaining is, in fact, a violation of the Taylor Law. We expect the panel to start deliberation quickly, but we have no information as to when a final award will come down. We will continue to push for a speedy outcome but will not jeopardize a favorable award in order to have a quick outcome. We will keep you informed of significant developments as they occur.
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