Mayor de Blasio’s leisurely morning breakfast was interrupted by protesting police officers. (DANNY IUDICI FOR NY DAILY NEWS)
“Who has a job where you can show up whenever you want? We want him to come to the bargaining table and negotiate realistic with us,” said PBA President Patrick Lynch.
“He wakes up at the crack of noon and goes to work.”
The union and the city are fighting over a two-year contract covering Aug. 1 through July 31, 2019. The PBA has also asked for whopping 29% raise over a two-year period.
In response, the city’s Office of Labor Relations argued the union should fund its own pay hikes by making a series of concessions.
PBA President Patrick Lynch insulted de Blasio for showing up to work whenever he wants.(DANNY IUDICI FOR NY DAILY NEWS)
Lynch took particular exception to what he has called “dramatic increases in out of-pocket health benefit costs” and a removal of the PBA Annuity Fund for current and future members.
The de Blasio administration also demanded the union drop multiple grievances and labor lawsuits against the city.
Lynch and de Blasio are frequent foes.
The PBA head has repeatedly requested arbitration during his 18 years as head of the union — a costly, high-stakes process that typically takes a year.
The PBA had gotten contracts from an arbitration panel in 2002, 2005, and 2008.
A 2015 arbitration decision was a disaster for the PBA.
The panel — composed of one arbitrator from the city, one from the PBA and a third both sides agree upon — gave the PBA raises of 1%. The award matched raises for other unions received in the same period.
PBA members and officials lined up in protest against Mayor de Blasio on Ninth St. in front of the Prospect Park YMCA.(DANNY IUDICI FOR NY DAILY NEWS)
That ruling outraged Lynch, who went so far as to organize protests outside arbitrator Howard Edelman’s home. The union refused to pay the $18,000 it owes him — the union’s share of his $115,000 bill — and questioned his integrity.
The move so angered other arbitrators that 27 of them wrote to the New York State Public Employment Relations Board asking to be excluded from future PBA arbitration jobs.
In 2017, without needing arbitration, the city and union briefly put their differences aside to agree to wage terms after cops worked for 4 ½ years under an expired contract.
That five-year deal included an additional 2% raise for incumbent cops above what the city’s other uniformed unions got during the same period. The extra pay for cops was in part funded by givebacks made for new hires.
That retroactive deal brought cops current — but has left them trying to hash out new terms with de Blasio.
“Last year, we reached the first settlement with the PBA in almost 10 years and three years ago the City was successful in its contract arbitration with the Union. We are confident that we will once again reach a result that is both fair to the police officers and the taxpayers,” City Hall spokeswoman Freddi Goldstein said.