Union blasts Nutter in TV ads, demands fair contract
The city's blue-collar municipal union, District Council 33 turned-up the heat earlier this week when it began rolling out TV and radio ads blasting Mayor Nutter for failing to make good on a promise for a fair contract.
Union blasts Nutter in TV ads, demands fair contract
Jan Ransom
Updated:
The city’s blue-collar municipal union, District Council 33 turned-up the heat earlier this week when it began rolling out TV and radio ads blasting Mayor Nutter for failing to make good on a promise for a fair contract.
The city’s largest municipal union has been without a contract since it expired in 2009.
“He promised us he would be fair,” Matthews said. “He has not done that. That’s why we put ads on to let the public know.”
The ads will appear on Comcast cable systems and Channel 17 during Phillies games and on radio stations WDAS AM and FM, WPPZ, WRNB and WURD for at least another week and some ads may even run during the summer, said DC 33 president Pete Matthews, adding that there will be a rally at LOVE Park next week and they will visit City Hall during budget hearings.
Mayoral spokesman Mark McDonald said the city and DC 33 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees have been talking on a regular basis. Matthews said the most recent meeting lasted for two hours yesterday at the Sheraton Hotel.
In the ads, the union says it saved the city more than $400 million in wages and healthcare benefits and the Nutter Administration disputes that claim.
McDonald explained that the money the union claims to have saved is in fact a pension deferral. A five-year sales-tax increase was implemented to help the city during the recession and that included withholding payments to the pension fund which will be paid back from the city’s general fund with interest.
“For the union to say it saved the city this money is just not true,” McDonald said. “We don’t know where they’re getting these numbers from.”
Nutter has said he would not agree to a contract that doesn’t include significant benefit changes, but the stalemate has affected the city’s ability to deal with a massive shortage in the pension fund.
“The bottom line is that the Mayor is certainly prepared to sign a contract that accomplishes some major goals in the area of pension reform, health care reform and changes in work rules that enable us to manage city finances.”
Its kind of entertaining watching the entitled union get shafted just like us peasants. The Princes and Princesses of the Democrat party only need them when its election time.— psyrus- Instead of helping the 1% tear down you fellow workers you should be spending your time building yourself up. — tom-104
- More money for union employees is money that will come from tax dollars paid by those of us who live and work in the city. This isn't about the 1% nonsense that keeps getting trotted out. It's about unions ripping off all of us. They wanted 9% raises -- are they going to be more accountable? Flexible? Productive? — jfar86
Comment removed.- Unions killed the city of Detroit, killed quality public education in this country and killed the refineries in Philly and Marcus Hook with their employees with no edcuation making $33/hour. Keep trying for the highest wage possible and keep watching potential jobs and work leave this city in droves. It's laughable how they don't see the writing on the wall...— knicks84
- This union is made up of too many uneducated dopes. Seriously, many of the union couldn't get a job anywhere else if their life depended on it. They making exactly what they should be making or even more. they don't deserve a penny more. If they wanted more money they should have got an education.— A1Z
- Hey ...don't be messin with Spanky Urkel. He's in training for Dancing with the stars.— MilesLong1
- "changes in work rules"
HUZZAH!!!! That is what is needed in the union contracts. Not less benefits, not less pay - more ability for the City to manage its own workers. Why keep paying someone's salary when they do no work??? Why can't the City fire underperforming people, or strip pensions from those who misuse and abuse the public trust? These changes will save the City far more (in both long and short terms) than any swicth-over to 401k's ever could.— citylumberjack - Maybe Philadelphia's Mayor should pull a "Scott Walker" on these union ingrates. END UNIONS IN PUBLIC SERVICE!!!— Citizenc92
- This is one where the Mayor needs to hold the line. No new election where you need these unions. They may work hard, but their benefits should be in line with everyone else.— Paul Deon
- If the union wanted a "fair" contract, it would involve greatly REDUCING their compensation and also enacting across the board reductions in staffing. That is what would be "fair" to those who fund their endless sense of entitlement and lazy work ethic.
Unions are a BIG reason why the city of Philadelphia is going straight down the toilet at a rpaid pace.— kelprod2 - Nutter has given the Police Commissioner a $60,000 base pay increase, has hired a a slew of deputy Mayors at the $200,00.00 pay level and of course our fine City Council gets $105,000 each plus perks!!!!! The Union workers have seen a zero increase in the past 4 years! The City has mis managed and underfunded the pension for the past forty years. The politicians have got you all brainwashed into dumping all the financial problems on the backs of the average worker whose pay scale is between $20,000.00 and $45,000.00. It takes a unionized City employee 30 years to make what the Police Commissioner got in his raise this year! And homicides are on a record pace! — efwillis
- Municipal and Federal workers should not be able to Unionize. It's that simple. We need to pass new laws abolishing government unions as they work at the service of us taxpayers. If they don't want to do it, work somewhere else. I'm all for people being able to unionize in jobs which may be unsafe, or have physically taxing jobs. Jeffrey Gundlach of Doubline Funds, just had a good piece in his February newsletter commenting that the avg. Federal worker now makes 2x what someone in the private sector makes. It should be the other way around.— TreePlanter
- If the union is up in arms over Nutter, he must be doing something right! Go get'em Nut man.— dogman5
Follow Chris on Twitter
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
Follow Dave on Twitter.
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. E-mail tips to ransomj@phillynews.com
Follow Jan on Twitter
Sean Collins Walsh is from Bucks County and went to Northwestern University. He joined the Daily News copy desk in 2012 and now covers the Nutter administration. Before that, he interned at papers including The New York Times, The Dallas Morning News and The Seattle Times. E-mail tips to walshSE@phillynews.com
Follow Sean on Twitter
