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Thursday, July 24, 2008
District Council 33 Strikes One-year Deal With The City

District Council 33, the city's largest municipal union, just struck a one-year contract deal with Mayor Nutter's negotiators.  The executive board of the union, which represents 9,400 blue-collar workers, voted 20-10 to endorse the deal, according to PhillyClout's Catherine Lucey, who is now at the scene of the negotiations.

DC33 members will get an $1,100 signing bonus and the city will continue to pay $976 per member each month for health care costs.  The one-year deal does not include any raises.  That provoked an outcry from Evon Sutton, who challenged DC33 head Pete Matthews for leadership of the union earlier this year.  Sutton was seen at the negotiations, yelling "it was a sell-out."

Nutter's negotiators earlier this month inked a one-year deal with the Fraternal Order of Police which included a 3.5 percent raise but a reduction in the amount the city pays for health care costs.  Nutter wants all of the city's unions to participate in a health care committee to consider how to improve benefits while reducing costs.

District Council 47, which represents white-collar workers, last week said it would participate in the committee but wanted the same raises as the FOP for a one-year deal.

UPDATE:  Matthews just spoke about the contract, emphasizing that his union "didn't give anything back" to the city on health care.  DC33 will participate in Nutter's committee but won't go along with any attempts to merge the four city union health care plans into one large plan.  "There is no possibility of that," Matthews said. "This is a committee to look at how we may lower the cost of health care."  Next up, Matthews said, is getting the contract approved by the union membership and then starting negotiations on a multi-year contract to start when the new one-year deal ends.

2nd UPDATE:  Mayor Nutter is now speaking about the new contract.  In a statement from his office, Nutter says the deal gives the city "crucial time" to address the crisis of health care costs.  "This day is historic because for the first time, farsighted union leaders have agreed to sit down with the city administration in the spirit of cooperation and a belief that we can turn what has been for the last decade a slow-motion, quiet crisis into a victory that is fair to all parties," Nutter said.

DC47, meanwhile, is still sticking to its guns.  It wants a deal that matches what the FOP got.  "We take the mayor at his word that the FOP award should be the model for all city employees," DC47 president Cathy Scott said through a spokesman this evening. "We expect the mayor to keep his word."

Posted by Chris Brennan @ 7:48 PM  Permalink | 6 comments
Comments   
Comment removed.
Posted 11:11 PM, 07/24/2008
larryork
This sounds better for city taxpayers than the 5% raise Nutter gave to cops and tried to spin as a win-win. Wonder how these city workers would fare if they had to work in private sector conditions like those of us who pay their wages?
Posted 06:14 AM, 07/25/2008
Grandmacece
What about the retiree's. What are we just baloney. The union was built on the backs of those who have retired. Remember your pension never grows. What yu got 15 years ago doesn't go as far as it usd to go. The cost of living is outrageous. If you got $900.00 years ago, it means nothing today. You forget out of that we have to pay for part of our own health coverage. We are living longer that we used to live. Give us old dogs a bone or something. Remember if you live long enough, you'll also be one of us.
Posted 06:32 AM, 07/25/2008
phillygirl82
larryork- the police officers received a total of 3.5% not 5%. I know how city workers would fair in the private sector- As reported by industry, the average increase for 2008 is 3.7%. So, in actuality the deal is slightly lower than average. Pay increases are designed to keep up with cost of living increases and inflation. I think it is fair that the people protecting our city get pay increases similar to private industry. Workers in private industry do not risk their lives on a daily basis.
Posted 02:49 PM, 07/25/2008
phillyworker123
larryork, I think I would fare just fine. I work very hard and hmmmmmm I also pay taxes.
Posted 12:45 AM, 07/28/2008
Fa90no8
This is my money you guys are trying to bargain for I mean I thin you would love a raise too and because I work for the government I am look at as corrupt because I expect my pay to keep up with the cos of living. Ha Ha I laugh what would you do without us and the Mexicans
6 comments
About Chris Brennan and Catherine Lucey
PhillyClout
Chris Brennan, a native Philadelphian and graduate of Temple University, joined the Daily News in 1999. He has written about SEPTA, the Philadelphia School District, the legalization of casino gambling, state government, the mayor, the governor, City Council and political campaigns.

Catherine Lucey joined the Daily News in 2002. Since then she has written about murderous drug gangs, political protesters and Harry Potter. For the past two years, she covered the 2007 mayoral election. Now that the battle is over, she has moved down to the City Hall bureau where she will report on the Nutter administration.

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Catherine Lucey
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