It took lunch at Lorenzo’s — and a personal intervention from Mayor John DeStefano — to finally settle a police union contract.
The police union reached a tentative agreement with the city on a three-year contract that includes pension and wage givebacks, city and union officials announced Thursday. The last contract expired on July 1, 2008.
The tentative agreement needs majority approval by the police union’s 465 members at a vote on Wednesday, said AFSCME Local 530 President Sgt. Louis Cavaliere. He said the union made concessions under the threat of binding arbitration, which in a recession may have had a negative outcome.
“This may not be the greatest contract in the world,” he said, “but it’s enough to vote ‘yes’ and not go through the dangers of arbitration.”
If approved, the pact will bring some peace and some changes the city was seeking. It has also created a division between younger and older members of the police force.
Older members would benefit under the deal because it boosts the retirement age from 65 to 67. Younger members would lose a program that would let them retire after 15 years.
Overall, the city is pleased with a shift toward defined-contribution pensions and a cheaper health care plan that would drive down long-term costs, said DeStefano.
The pact comes after many months of talks that at some points appeared to be deadlocked.
A turning point came a couple months ago at Lorenzo’s Ristorante Italiano in West Haven, the town where Cavaliere lives. At the time, negotiations had stretched out for a year past the contract’s expiration. DeStefano decided to take action: He arranged the lunch at the Italian eatery and, for the first time, he personally sat down at the negotiating table.
DeStefano said he doesn’t make a practice of taking part in negotiations. “But when it’s necessary,” he said, “I do.”
He joined Cavaliere, city labor relations director Craig Manemeit, Assistant Police Chief Stephanie Redding and members of the police union executive board. At the meeting, the group settled on “some of the primary issues” of the contract, DeStefano said. He declined to give specifics.
DeStefano downplayed the event. Manemeit did 95 percent of the contract negotiating overall, he said.
The two sides have agreed on nearly all the issues they sought to discuss. One, the use of extra-duty “hold-downs,” where a single cop can claim a steady extra-duty shift at a bar or business, remains unresolved. That issue alone will be settled by binding arbitration, DeStefano said.
The mayor said he’s pleased about two big moves that will drive down costs in the long run. According to the new pact, cops hired after Oct. 1, 2009, must join a hybrid pension plan. They would get a defined-benefit pension based on their salary, excluding any overtime or extra-duty work. Pension contributions for overtime and extra-duty work would go into a defined contribution plan, a 401(k).
This reflects the city’s desire to gradually shift workers to defined contribution plans, which are used in the private sector. Under a defined benefit plan, when the pension fund plummets due to the stock market, the city is left on the hook for pension payouts, even though the money is no longer there.
New hires will also have to join a new health care plan that’s cheaper for the city.
The changes in health care and pension plans set the standard for other contract negotiations, the mayor said. He expects to seek similar reforms in a new round of AFSCME contract negotiations that begin this fall.
Other highlights of the police pact:
• Wages: no wage increase in the first year (FY09), a 3 percent pay hike in the current year retroactive to July; and another 3 percent hike in FY11. Extra-duty pay boosted from time and a quarter to time and a half.
• “Bad boy” clause. Cops convicted on corruption charges may have their pension benefits stripped. The city couldn’t do that before.
• The police and fire communications center, where 911 calls are received, will be staffed by civilian instead of sworn personnel.
• A 50 percent cut to cops’ longevity payments — bonuses for length of service.
• Cuts to cops’ clothing allowance. New uniforms every other year, not every year.
• Traffic unit. Motorcycle squad can work the 3 – 11 p.m. shift, enabling the city to double its traffic enforcement squad.
Old vs. Young
Some proposed changes are pitting younger cops against the veteran officers on the union executive board.
Older cops would gain from a bump in the retirement age from 65 to 67; that allows two members to retire with a pension where they otherwise wouldn’t.
Some younger members are miffed about giving up a program that lets them retire with a pension after only 15 years. As of now, cops who have 15 years on the job can cash in 150 unused sick days for five extra years in pension calculations. That lets them retire with a 20-year pension and health care benefits after only 15 years on the force. Under the proposed contract, cops would have to work for 20 years before cashing in sick days for pension benefits.
Cavaliere (pictured) downplayed the issue.
“There’s probably 100 people who say they’re mad because they want to leave in 15 years,” he said. But history shows only three cops take that buyout program every year. “They’re giving up nothing,” he said.
Cavaliere, who has over 40 years on the force, said he wasn’t willing to risk the contract so that people can ship off to a second career after only 15 years.
“I’m not going to go to arb[itration] because a few people a year want to leave at 15,” he said.
“The young people, I try to explain to them, you may get something from an arbitrator that may be to your detriment,” Cavaliere explained. New Haven is ranked third-to-last in the state in terms of ability to pay, which is a major factor in binding arbitration, he said. That means odds are not in the union’s favor if the contract goes that route.
Cavaliere was asked to respond to a complaint that the decisions favor the more veteran officers, and that younger cops didn’t have a say.
He said contract negotiations are decided by the union’s seven-person executive board, veteran members who are elected by the rank and file. “If they want to be on the board, they can run,” he said.
Cavaliere said in his four decades on the force, this is the first time he’s had to go to the negotiating table in a recession. He said the biggest coup was maintaining the pension plan for the current officers on the force.
“It’s not one of the contracts we bring back and start high-fiving, so to speak,” he said. But “I protected people who are here now the best I could.”
Good work--this is definitely an improvement!