District Council 47, which represents 3,400 white-collar city workers, agreed this afternoon to a one-year contract.
That makes Mayor Nutter three for four in city union negotiations. District Council 33, which represents 9,400 blue-collar workers, agreed to a one-year deal on July 24. The Fraternal Order of Police accepted a one-year deal from the city for its 6,800 members on July 10. The firefighters' union, with 2,300 members, will start binding arbitration with the city on Monday.
DC 47 got the same deal as DC 33, which accepted a $1,100 signing bonus last month with no raises while the city agreed to continue paying $976 a month for each member's heath care plan. The FOP deal included a 3.5 percent raise but the city cut its health care payments from $1,303 a month for each member to $1,165.
All three unions have agreed to participate in a joint city-health care committee that will examine how to maintain benefits while bringing down costs. Nutter, who described the contracts as "historic" and "unprecedented" said the one-year deals give him the time to examine ballooning health care costs.
"You don't have to be Alan Greenspan to know we have to do something about this," he said.
DC 47 president Cathy Scott last month called on Nutter to use the FOP contract as a model for all of the city's unions. Scott said her members would accept a one-year deal with a 3.5 percent raise and $1,165 monthly payments for health care. They didn't get those terms.
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.
Comment removed.
You are kidding me right. How can you settle for nothing but a $1100 bonus that the city will take wage tax and everything else out of? It counts nothing towards your pension. You in essence accepted a payoff. The city again is going to try and balance the budget on the backs of the workers of this city, Just like Fast Eddie did after Goode raped the city for all that it is worth. John Street did the same thing and Nutter want to do it again. What back door deal did your union make to sell out it's membership??— jn3- $1100 bonus + $11,700 health care for another year of inefficient performance? Sign me up!— Echo
- Echo- you might just fit in- IF you're willing to take a pay cut of 20-30K. Dont rush to judgment. Good workers usually work for good leaders. Quick fact- the City employees who are the decisions makers aren't UNION members. The deal sucks. Its likely a result of all the heat coming from the Social Workers who failed to do their job and save that poor child. There was ground for DC 47 to stand on prior to the coincidental media BLOW UP. Was it an outrage- ABSOLUTELY. But timing is everything and I say this one was PERFECTLY TIMED. Aside from it all- failings of those heartless individuals should not implicate the quality of work nor the ethics of the group. jn3 is right. Its nothing but a way to balance the budget. If you want to see inefficient performance, imagine the future generation of city "professional" employees. The folks working now are dedicated to their jobs. How many top notch college grads with heavy student loans from the NEW GENERATION will want to work for peanuts? Pretty soon it just might show- u get what u pay for.— Daisy22
- I agree with jn3, except the payoff and back door deal comments. Sure, previous mayors have tried to stick it to the unions, but the membes like to bad-mouth the union if thet don't go in and get what the members want, "to the letter." I think they did the best they could, considering. At least they did get the members a workplace violence program, which is badly needed with all our children, recreation & library employees being attacked and injured this year. They secured work-related certification help, & let us not forget they held on to the employee benefits program, which from what I understand, the city's health plan can't hold a candle to. Question: Would it had been better to have a city-wide strike having nothing coming in for your bills, accept the bills? What would have happened to city services during a strike? I don't think this city would smell so nice with trash piling up on the sidewalks or having no places for our children to go after school. Who protects the children while mom and/or dad are on the picket lines? With this 1-year contract, both white & blue collar unions, will still be in there helping to keep our city clean & our children safe and working toward next years contract. Let's get behind the unions and not let the city break them up. U-N-I-T-Y for the U-N-I-O-N-S -- where would we be without them? Probably up the infamous creek...— CityWkrWife
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David Gambacorta spent a small eternity writing about cops, drug dealers and serial killers. Now he’s writing about power and politics – which sometimes reminds him of the old crime beat. He joined the Daily News in 2005. And yes, he knows you’re not quite sure how to pronounce his last name. E-mail tips to gambacd@phillynews.com
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Catherine Lucey joined the Daily News in 2002 and has written about murderous drug gangs, political protesters and Harry Potter. After covering the 2007 mayoral election, she moved over to the City Hall bureau where she has been reporting on the Nutter administration.
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Jan Ransom, a native New Yorker, joined the Daily News in 2010 after graduating from Howard University. She has since written about the difficulty of filing police complaints, tax deadbeats and life after violent home invasions. She joined the Daily News City Hall Bureau in 2011 and has plunged headfirst into reporting on administration budget battles and City Council shenanigans.
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