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DC 47 contract
Submitted by Ray Murphy on Fri, 08/15/2008 - 10:36am.
The City and DC 47, the city's white collar public employee union, have made a one-year deal.
There is a signing bonus of $1100, no permanent pay raise, and no increase in the city's contribution to the health and welfare fund.
DC 47 has agreed to study the cost of benefits and see if any savings can be achieved. Remember, pension and health care benefits were probably the most important item in the negotiations, and it looks like both sides have ended at a stalemate there.
Again, it's only one year deal, so, like most things in this year's city budget, this is another fight deferred till next year when the city's economic picture is more fully drawn.
From PhillyClout, we get a little more details on the reaction and what this means:
Scott today said: "while we do not embrace this contract, we accept this contract." She later said that the membership want a percentage raise and that they were originally looking for a two-year contract.
The health care committee has caused wide-spread speculation that Nutter may use the next year to push for a consolidation of the four union health-care plans into one city-run program. Former mayors John Street and Ed Rendell also tried to pull that off in their first union negotiations but failed. The unions, while agreeing to participate in the committee, oppose consolidating health care plans.
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My take
I guess I have two thoughts about city contracts.
First, I can't help but point out that none of the really systemic issues are being resolved. Nutter still hasn't figured out how to deal with the skyrocketing cost of employee benefits, particularly the problems with the pension fund. I know that the pension bond is supposed to be in the works, but I have to wonder if the havoc being wrecked in the credit markets due to the real estate meltdown is going to scuttle the whole thing.
Second, this contract is really a placeholder for a new round of negotiations that will take place a year from now. There is a very good chance that the finances of the city might be in pretty bad shape by then. Declining revenue will put a lot of pressure on the unions to forgo major pay increases or larger contributions for health and welfare.
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Check out "It's Our Money"
The Mayor is not alone
I mean, who has? This is a major issue for public and private employers and employees everywhere, not to mention one lynch pin in the Presidential election. In other words as Philadelphia goes, so goes the nation...
That said, Nutter and the city's public employees need to think critically about their places in the larger world (for Nutter that means setting an example for other employers about how not to screw workers, and for the union that means acknowledging the reality of health care and retirement benefits in the US and the need for solidarity with those who have neither).