A contract-arbitration award that gave cops a raise of nearly 10 percent sparked a demand by firefighters yesterday that the deal – which will cost the city $50 million – be extended to them.
The Uniformed Firefighters Association yesterday said it was exercising its right to reopen its most recent contract negotiations to demand a “comparable wage increase.”
“The award granted police officers is more money than was allotted for uniformed unions, including firefighters, in 2004-2006,” the UFA’s president, Steve Cassidy, said yesterday.
“We knew that the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association was going to fight and we wished them well. They certainly have succeeded, and we are going to . . . solve the problem as it applies to New York City firefighters.”
The cash for cops – which bumps up a trainee officer’s pay from $25,100 to nearly $36,000 – will do little to lure new hires, Mayor Bloomberg said. The NYPD is 1,100 short of its goal for the number of recruits this year.
“[Police] Commissioner [Ray] Kelly is worried,” the mayor said. “He thinks salaries are still too low. He does not think, nor do I, we will find it easy to recruit people.”
But he said the raises would make meeting city budget restraints tougher.
“It certainly does not help our situation,” he said.
The cops’ salary jump was ordered this week by a state arbitration panel of the Public Employment Relations Board. The deal also saw top pay for veteran cops go up from $59,588 to $65,382.
But it came with a cost. A 20-day vacation package for rookies was cut in half, and they were told one of the remaining days had to be surrendered to firing-range duty.
Bloomberg said the city had to make cuts to vacation allowances – which were opposed by the PBA – to find cash for the raises.
“There is outrage in the NYPD over this,” said Professor Eugene O’Donnell, a police expert at Manhattan’s John Jay College of Criminal Justice.
“When I joined the NYPD in 1982, my salary was $27,000. A quarter of a century later, it’s barely gone up, and cops had to buy this raise. They have had to give up their vacation for an extra $10,000.
“I have spoken to several officers and this is not a happy scenario.
“Putting it bluntly: It’s not nearly enough.”
Prospective recruits at John Jay yesterday were also not impressed.
“For me, it would not make any sense,” said Chris McNulty, 33, a criminal-justice student from Woodside, Queens, who intends to join the customs service.
“If I was 23 and single, I might consider it. But I’ve got a baby to take care of and that’s not nearly enough money.”
Additional reporting by Murray Weiss