Detectives union ratifies contract with City Hall
The New York City Detectives Endowment Association ratified its seven-year contract with the de Blasio administration Friday evening, bringing two of the city’s five police unions into current labor settlements as the mayor looks to move past his feud with parts of the NYPD.
The detectives will receive 11-percent raises over the life of the contract.
The captains union approved an identical contract last month, and the lieutenants are set to vote on the same deal next week.
The sergeants union remains in active negotiations with City Hall and the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association, which represents 24,000 rank-and-file officers, is in binding arbitration. P.B.A. president Pat Lynch lashed out at the mayor repeatedly last year, most forcefully after the Dec. 20 execution of two police officers, when he laid some of the blame for the murders at the mayor’s feet.
D.E.A. president Mike Palladino told Capital Friday evening that 59.2 percent of the union members who voted approved of the deal while 40.8 percent voted against it. Sixty percent of the ballots were returned, he said.
Tensions between police and the mayor, which have dissipated in recent weeks, contributed to the turnout, he said.
“There’s a lot that goes into it. You have the dead of winter, you have the kind of, this—not a black cloud—(but) the cops are kind of demoralized over what transpired so that goes into it as well,” he said.
The result was not surprising, given the recent turmoil, he said.
“That vote is reflective of the overall feeling of the police, not just with respect to the contract but with respect to the entire anti-police climate that exists right now,” he said.
Nonetheless, as Capital has reported, the mayor and police have made amends, though the mayor never apologized to the union leaders.
Palladino attended a press conference just last week with the mayor and police commissioner Bill Bratton to announce a $7.3 million investment in new police vests. Officers have been clamoring for better vests, and the issue received attention during a raucous P.B.A. meeting during which Lynch’s opponents in an upcoming union election criticized his record in attending to their priorities.
After the meeting, Lynch, who faces an internal challenger in the election, also called on City Hall to deliver better vests.
The contract three police union presidents agreed to in December provides officers 11-percent raises over seven years. The first raise would not kick in until the final month of the first year for captains but Palladino said detectives and lieutenants are getting their first raise in the seventh month of the first year. The overall package is 1 percent more than the raises awarded to other municipal workers last year.
In December, 11 days before the officers’ murder, the contract was announced with eight uniformed supervisory unions who joined forces to strike a deal with the de Blasio administration. The total deal will cost taxpayers $559 million, which is to be offset by $145.4 million in health-care savings required of the unions, according to figures provided by City Hall.
De Blasio’s administration has settled contracts with 71 percent of its municipal workforce. When he took office last year, all contracts were expired.
“We’re pleased that the police detectives have ratified their contract,” Amy Spitalnick, a spokeswoman for de Blasio, said in a statement Friday night. “The patterned settlements we’ve reached with both civilian and uniformed employees show again and again that labor and management can reach timely agreements that respect our workers and protect taxpayers, without arbitration or litigation.”
