Municipal labor leaders facing difficult contract negotiations are openly talking of “waiting out” Mayor Bloomberg to reach more favorable settlements with the next mayor.
“If you’re telling us we already have zero, then it certainly makes no sense to go in and negotiate — I already have nothing,” said Norman Seabrook, president of the Correction Officers Benevolent Association, echoing a position held privately by executives at other unions.
“At the end of the day, I’ll wait for the next person to come in. I’ll wait it out.”
Bloomberg’s third term doesn’t end until Dec. 31, 2013, so it’s going to be a long wait.
But in an era when state workers are about to swallow what amounts to a wage decrease, the strategy isn’t illogical for some city unions.
Under state law, all terms of an expired contract remain in effect until there’s a new agreement. So Seabrook’s members won’t be getting raises after their contract expires in November. But they also won’t have to surrender any benefits.
A groundbreaking deal signed by Gov. Cuomo and the state Civil Service Employees Association calls for no raises in the first three years, plus higher worker contributions for medical coverage. In effect, it’s a pay cut.
“That’s hovering over everything,” admitted one insider.
There’s also a very good chance the next mayor will be a Democrat who was elected with union support and more sympathetic to union concerns.
Waiting out Bloomberg is more problematic for teachers, who’ve been working without a contract since November 2009 and are demanding the same 4-percent raises in each of two years won in the last round of bargaining by other unions.
Negotiations with the United Federation of Teachers have long ago collapsed.
Bloomberg initially offered 2-percent hikes, only to later take those down to zero.
There’s also no way UFT chief Mike Mulgrew can go back to his members without the same numbers achieved earlier by other unions.
“The problem here is the pattern, which the city established,” claimed one union source.
The only way out, suggested a labor expert, is a creative, multiyear agreement that provides something each side can claim as a victory.
“For both sides to save face, the contract has to go beyond two years,” said one source. “No union is going to take zero.”