City Hall, Sergeants Union to Negotiate Amid Rising Tension

Capital New York – October 14, 2014

by Sally Goldenberg

Mayor Bill de Blasio, who has boasted of his success in settling contracts with the majority of his workforce, has hit a roadblock with law-enforcement unions, many of which are angry over the prospect of one year of flat salaries as well as the recent controversy surrounding a top aide to the first lady.

Today, de Blasio’s chief labor negotiator, Bob Linn, is scheduled to meet with one of City Hall’s harshest critics—Sergeants Benevolent Association president Ed Mulllins.

Mullins said he has low expectations for the negotiating session.

“We’re not optimistic, to be quite honest with you,” he told Capital in a recent interview. “We’re kind of looking at it, in a lot of ways, as an anti-police relationship right now.”

Mullins said part of his frustration stems from the mayor’s steadfast defense of Rachel Noerdlinger, his wife’s chief of staff, in the face of recent reports about her boyfriend’s lengthy criminal history, his online posts calling police officers “pigs,” and her son’s tweets disparaging police and white people.

Noerdlinger, who omitted from a city Department of Investigation background check the fact she lives with her boyfriend in New Jersey, was also the longtime spokeswoman for the Rev. Al Sharpton, who for years has been critical of the NYPD.

Mullins said he has little doubt the hostility stemming from those stories will creep into the negotiations. The S.B.A. has been working without a contract for at least four years.

“Calling cops pigs is offensive,” he said. “It’s offensive to cops. The mayor’s response is, well, that’s not her and she’s been a hard-working woman.”

Mullins said he also opposes the pattern of raises City Hall has offered to other unions, which include at least one year of flat salaries offset by a one-time, $1,000 bonus. The United Federation of Teachers, District Council 37 and several other unions have accepted the offer, which de Blasio said will set the pattern for other unions. Those contracts offer 10-percent raises over seven years, despite the 18 months of flat wages.

“You can’t have a bargaining session where your opening first 18 months are zeroes,” Mullins said.

In addition to salary issue, Mullins said he wants a re-opener clause which would allow the S.B.A. to renegotiate if another police union receives wage increases above what the sergeants get. That union, the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association, reached a stalemate with City Hall earlier this year and is headed toward binding arbitration, in which a judge settles the dispute if a state-appointed mediator cannot bring the parties together.

Mullins has said he expects negotiations with the S.B.A. to end up in binding arbitration.

A spokeswoman for de Blasio would not engage Mullins.

“This is another example of the union bargaining in the press, instead of at the negotiating table, in an effort to win leverage,” the spokeswoman, Amy Spitalnick, said.

Over the summer, Mullins dialed up his fight with de Blasio by vehemently opposing the mayor’s ongoing effort to bring the 2016 Democratic National Convention to Brooklyn.

Mullins took out newspaper ads claiming the city is not safe enough to house the event—a stance de Blasio immediately called “fear-mongering” and a negotiating tactic.

Still, this fight presents the latest, and perhaps sharpest dispute between City Hall and one of the unions representing uniformed workers.

Although the mayor had early success in reaching deals with 60 percent of the municipal workforce, the uniformed groups present a bigger challenge.

Several labor sources said the mayor’s best shot at securing a contract with uniformed employees lies with the sanitation union.

But Harry Nespoli, president of the Uniformed Sanitationmen’s Association, recently told Capital he, too, wants a re-opener clause to allow him more in wages should the patrolmen be granted more from binding arbitration.

“I definitely want a re-opener,” Nespoli said. “It’s something that was in the last contract. It’s nothing new to the city of New York and it protects my members. … If the arbitrator rules that (a police union) deserves more money, I want the same thing for my members.”

–additional reporting by David Giambusso

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