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Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Union Complains About Pew Report Before It Is Released

With contracts for the four municipal unions due to expire one week from today, the Pew Charitable Trusts is planning to release this week an updated version of a study released with the Economy League of Greater Philadelphia in January 2008, warning about the rising costs of employee benefits for those unions. That report, entitled "Philadelphia's Quiet Crisis," riled union leaders, especially District Council 47 and Local 22 of the International Association of Fire Fighters. Those unions attacked the report in the Daily News, denying that there was a crisis and calling the research "fatally flawed." Pew said the city needed to reign in benefits or they would consume 28 percent of the city's annual budget by 2012.

District Council 47 isn't waiting for the updated report to attack it. Bob Bedard, a union spokesman, sent out a long e-mail Sunday complaining about inaccurate information he said the union found in a partial draft of the report supplied by Pew for fact-checking. Bedard also complained about the timing of the updated report, coming out so close to the expiration of the contract. "It can only have the impact of coloring the discussion," Bedard told PhillyClout.

We asked if the timing might inform the discussion, since union benefits are expected to be an important topic during the current contract negotiations. Mayor Nutter is seeking $125 million in labor savings in the next five years. Bedard said he didn't want to guess at Pew's motives but again called the timing "suspect."

We passed along Bedard's concerns to Cindy Jobbins, Pew's communication's officer, who said the unions have not seen the report. Here is the rest of her response: "It is The Pew Charitable Trusts’ practice not to discuss our research findings until they have been released publicly, and we urge others to refrain from assessing the research until they have fully reviewed it. Our report, coming out later this week, looks at the finances of pensions and health care for city workers at a time when the two topics are the focus of attention in Harrisburg and City Hall. We hope that our unbiased, fact-based research will inform the discussions and increase public understanding of this serious issue."

Posted by Chris Brennan @ 12:22 PM Permalink | 8 comments

Comments

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 1:39 PM, 06/23/2009

Pew is liberal to a fault but you can't argue with the numbers. There is no revenue base to provide these above average benefits and salaries anymore, and the law is on the city's side to fire at-will to get costs under control. This is not "mean right-wingers" asserting this -- this is inescapable. No matter how politically powerful the white collar city employee unions were or are, there's no where to run to anymore for money. The city has made it clear that they are not going to collect the $522 million in overdue property taxes at sheriff sale, or the $1 billion in forfeit bail, and the unions seem unwilling or unable to call Council and Nutter out for not being aggressive about collections in the largest debt areas owed the city like property taxes and forfeit bail. The city is sacrificing voting blocs to balance the budget, and surprisingly, they're keeping the deadbeats and the court no-shows to cut city government. It's funny because property tax deadbeats and court no-shows who got city funded bail don't even have a union.

— CleanupPhilly

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 1:41 PM, 06/23/2009

That's how obscene costs are to fund the white collar city employee unions.

— CleanupPhilly

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 1:59 PM, 06/23/2009

ORGANIZED LABOR = ORGANIZED CRIME, keep voting "D" and you'll keep doling out the money for the laziest of all workers....

— Mike S.

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 3:45 PM, 06/23/2009

It's amazing how Pew can trip over its own two feet. Why don't they just say the unions haven't seen the report and be done with it. Instead, they feel this need to babble on and on....It's own worst enemy.

— Sam Pileggi

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 4:13 PM, 06/23/2009

organized labor is a response to organized industry and tamany hall politics. Wages paid to non-union labor are a direct result of union activity on behalf of all workers. It is primarily union efforts that spawned this country's middle class. Organized labor activities contributed to establishment of the minimum wage, child labor laws (underpaid children kept adults out of the workforce), etc. >>> The only at-will firings that can occur are for those people who have been appointed by the mayor or council. All others are civil service and cannot simply be fired. They might be laid of with bumping rights and unemployment compensation but even here there are limitations that link layoffs to receipt of state and federal funds. I look forward to reading the report and seeing the numbers.

— nebulus

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 5:22 PM, 06/23/2009

Check out Part 2 of Philadelphia's Long, Hot Summer, The City and its Unions: Deal or Disaster?, on Committee of Seventy's website (www.seventy.org) if you want to learn more about the union negotiation process.

— jdavidseventy

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 3:36 PM, 06/24/2009

Mike S...they aren't all lazy...but when you're protected (blue and white collar) why work harder if you don't have too?

— jdobbs52

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 3:39 PM, 06/24/2009

nebulus...getr a clue. Union wages have nothing to do with non-union wages...if it did, then why did all union workers receive a bonus last year and non-union employees take a pay cut? I guess non-union employees making 50k+ are deamed to be too rich? I wither at the thought of living in a communist society, but here we are.

— jdobbs52

8 comments

About The Philly Clout Team

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.

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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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