Although Boston quickly settled contracts with their police and fire departments before the start of the DNC, NYPD and FDNY are unlikely to make any headway.  The Post reports that the Mayor was upstaged by a PBA vehicle while at a Staten Island PR event.    In another event, the Mayor got into a verbal confrontation with firefighters in the Bronx (captured on WNBC video here).  Two completely disingenuous things said by the Mayor:

• "I work for $1 a year."  Most cops and firemen would be happy to change places Mr. Mayor.
• "C'mon" when confronted with the fact that the contract is two years old.  Apparently the Mayor not only believes we should receive miniscule raises but also that we should have to wait two years for them.

Base10 has written about this issue before and puts the clear cause of the police wage situation as horizontal pattern bargaining (the practice that once one union agrees to a settlement it becomes the "pattern" into which other unions are locked in spite of vastly differing circumstances).  Normally, Base10 is very pro-Mayor and had written extensively about what a great job he has done so far in education and other issues.  But on this issue, Mayor Mike, you have to give a little.  Another person upon whose shoulders this issue clearly rests is Commissioner Kelly.  For some strange reason, Police Commissioners traditionally give no input in the labor negotiations effecting their employees.  It's time for this Commissioner to break that agreement.  With unprecedented access to the Mayor, Kelly should convince him to break the pattern (as Mayor Koch did in the late 80's) and set police wages to a more realistic level. 

- posted by Base10 @ 11:51 AM