Leaders of the city's municipal unions today slammed Mayor Nutter's plan to freeze pay increases for city workers.
"This is not a positive development for contract negotiations," said Cathy Scott, president of AFSCME DC 47, which represents the city's white collar workers. "It’s never been done before, not even in 1992. We think it’s an insult to city employees who just did a great job on Welcome America."
The city today said pay increases -- including step increases and longevity pay -- would be halted for union workers and non-represented civil service employees.
Scott said DC 47 would be filing a class action grievance tomorrow. The city is relying on a state Supreme Court ruling which states that after a contract expires, an employer must maintain "status quo" during negotiations. That "status quo" does not include pay increases, according to the court. But Scott said she believes "there are provisions in our contract that go beyond the Supreme Court ruling."
John McNesby, president of the Philadelphia Fraternal Order of Police, and Bill Gault, president of the Philadelphia Firefighters Union, both said they were reviewing their legal options also.
"Our members are due that money and they deserve that money," McNesby said. "Whatever needs to be done, we’ll do on behalf of our members."
Negotiations with DC 47 and blue-collar union DC 33 are supposed to continue later this week. The police and fire contracts are settled through arbitration. That process has started for police and will kick off for fire in September.
Posted by Catherine Lucey @ 3:26 PM
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35 comments
cityslicker, you must be a union official, defending unions as you do. You are right, at one time unions were good for the working man. Now that is questionable. Unions goal now to perpetuate their own existence. You cite Obama as an example of a person taking on the CEO's. Actually he is creating class warfare. He took over GM and Chrysler and gave a large ownership share to the unions. The individual invester (the little guy investing in a mutual fund) was screwed in this takeover. You are an example of the mindless who follow the messiah and why this Great Nation is not going to be so great in the next 4 years. Try getting your information from multiple sources, not just the local stations, then you will be able to formulate an intelligent thought of your own.
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hey grill ryno and all the other SCABS,Talk about the american dream if it wasnt for UNIONS there wouldnt be a american dream only rich and poor ,all these big companies post big hugh profits and they are union whys that, the real ones stealing the money are the CEO's that Obama had to take care of and set them straight so when you blame a union get your facts straight,If it wasnt for a union you be working at wall mart or mcdonalds you idiot
hey clean up philly do you even live in the city ???? your a stone cold idiot you must be living off of daddys money and live in center city watering flowers.You wouldnt know a day of hard work if your daddy smacked you with it.If U do live in the city i bet you abuse the system to your liking .get a life and donate some of your daddys money to nutter so he can open more pools so these kids dont hang around your house and mug you.Leave the union business to a real hard working man or woman!!!!!!Oh wasnt your professor in collage represented by a union ??oh that dont count !!
JimmyCrackhead is right.. Philly would advance to at least the 1990s (from its current 1950s state) if the organized union criminals were up outta here, and people with a little intelligence / accountability were running the city's workforce
It's just Job Security for the Lawyers. The whole system is designed to make sure, they get their "Hand" in everything. If you took the Legal Fees, out of Philly Politics, they would HAVE the money they need.
Most of their jobs should be replaced by computers. Where do they think this money comes from. As a entrepreneur, why would I want my tax dollars sucked up by their heavy pensions and salaries. Try starting a business and then they will see that efficiency and cost effectiveness matters.
I worked at the old Navy Yard and most everyone (those folks down there that actually showed up for work) that if you got rid of half the workforce you would be able to get more work done, half the folks were in the way of the half that wanted to work. From my interactions with city agencies it seems to be the same. It's a kind of workfare program for the unemployable. Nutter can save money by putting about 35% of the city workers on welfare, which is where they came from and where they belong becaue they are not good for anything, they certainly aren't workers or civil servants. My guess is there is probably another 10% to 15% that are political hacks, so get rid of some of them and your down to a work force that would be small enough to save a lot of money and get work done. Pay the firemen & police, hire more trashmen and clean the city of the filth and crime.
CleanupPhilly: Check state law. There are specific statutes covering labor relations with municipal employees. The city cannot just say "we're not negotiating any more" and impose a new contract. They have to negotiate in good faith.
I agree that there is dead wood in the unions that needs to go. But what did you do about the BRT receptionist? Did you write a letter to the board? Did you call your councilperson to complain? Or did you just decide to vent on here and let her get away with it like everyone else does? Employees won't be accountable until they are held accountable by the public.
Unions vote democrat, democrat cuts union, wow. How could that possibly happen? Union short memory span, that's how. And when it comes election time, Bob Brady will host the union bosses at a "power luncheon" and all will be well again. They get what they deserve, you want to blindly support democratic politicians every election, then reap what you sow.
The party is officially over. Welcome to the real world, union members. Yet again, the union sense of entitlement rules the day. Time after time they believe that laws and even supreme court rulings do not apply to them. Remember that cost of living went DOWN the last year or so.
Cleanup, get over it, the city is NOT and at will employer. Civil Service still exists which requires dismissal for cause. The supreme court ruled that the contract last negotiated is still in effect (except raises) which means the city is NOT an at will employer. The only people who can be fired at will by the mayor are those who were hired by the mayor and by extension his appointees (MDO, Commissioners) outside of the civil service system. Some of Nutters perople may be talented but if they are talented why are they in lower paying government positions? Why did Dubow, who worked for Rendell, leave AMTRAK? a pay raise? or couldn't he hack even semi-private buisiness? Barnett left was part of a consulting firm populated by former Rendell appointees. I guess providing their expertise to other businesses and governments did not pay well enough so lets work for the gullible taxpayers of Philadelphia. I don't know who the Nutter people are who direct you to the appropriate person but I would suspect they are members of DC 33. DC 47 members are the social workers and recreation workers and accountants and IT people. They work just like the workers who set up and cleaned up before and after the July 4th celebration.
Pay the cops and fireman. The rest of the untrained monkeys can be replaced within hours to do their unskilled labor. 6 million out of work and some human mule riding on the back of a trash truck is complaining he is not paid enough? hahahahaha....ridiculous.
Wow! Didn't know that "Nutter's people" could do all of these fantastic things....as city employees, which they are, I hope they continue to do all these wonderful things in spite of a pending freeze.
He ugly
More than half the employees in a single city department could not write a coherent essay explaining correctly what their office does.
A clerk at the Dept. of Revenue told me that she couldn't tell me how to have property taxes collected on a nuisance property that owed back taxes because "we don't do that here." She screamed it over and over. I reminded her that in the Dept. of Revenue, you are in charge of collecting the revenue owed the city. Her boss finally came out and directed me to the person in charge of that process, known as "certifying" properties for sheriff sale.
Typical unions. Typical! They say they deserve that money. The city is broke but somehow the morons that run the unions feel they deserve the money. Tell all the union members to contact Obama and Biden to see if they can send a boat load of money to Philly ASAP!!!
It's funny that Union members or leaders run on here and other sites to try and gather up public support, point fingers and say "well look what they did". You aren't going to get support from a public that has been losing jobs while you and your goons get wage increases, less work to do and more security. Unions currently hold ZERO value in this workplace if they are unwilling to make the same cuts and sacrifices that are asked of regular workers.
70 years ago unions were needed for the protection of workers rights. Now in the 21 st century, these orginizations are past their usefulness. They (union officers) say they are for the workers, yet they constantly demonstrate they're only in it for themselves. I agree there is some need for orginized labor in these trying times but they cannot ask for raises for the workers when everyone else is taking cuts. GET YOUR HEAD OUT OF THE SAND! I wish you all the luck! I on the other hand, will be hoping you all fail.
Nutter's people are talented and educated. They can read, write, and answer phones. They can also type, use spreadsheets, databases, and powerpoint. They know and can use MS Office Suite, for example. They can use their phone system and transfer calls, and don't hang up on people. They return phone calls, and reply to emails. They refer you to the appropriate person to answer your question, and not one of Nutter's people has ever screamed at me. The ones that don't fit the above description are all members of the city employee non-uniformed unions. Who are we kidding?
The receptionist at the BRT last month hung up on me when I asked her to transfer me to the person in charge of assessments while another employee is on leave. Hung up. After yelling that she "didn't know" who that was.
You really could hire the new crop of college grads looking for work, with all their computer and I.T. skills, and turn this city around in about 600 days if only Nutter will fire the dead rotten wood.
Where were all of you when "Mikey One Term" was hiring his cabinet members for more than the allowable salaries, asking and getting exemptions and saying "you have to pay for talent". What have they accomplished ? give me one thing they can lay claim to?
Do you realize the people you are tearing down are your Family, Neighbors fellow Parishioners and Friends not the CARPETBAGGERS he brought in to destroy the City.
Again what have they done!!!!
Ryno is right -- the white collar city employees in Philly are some of the WORST of any city employee in every city I've lived in or visited. It's a crime perpetrated upon the taxpayer to subject them to city employees in public service who are so ignorant, so nasty, and so uneducated.
The city can simply say, "OK, you refused our contract offer, and we are done negotiating." Then the city is an at-will employer, because there is no contract. There is no contract to sue under. Status-quo ends when the city stops negotiating, so I can't wait for the unions to peeve Nutter so that he has to act, because the finances are what will force him to make his reputation as a pol who told the unions no more. Nutter has a fiduciary duty to the taxpayers first, and we deserve the best deal for our dollar. The unions have failed to make that case.
Way to go Mike S. Organized Crime thats all it is
Go Nutter, this is what you were elected to do
ORGANIZED LABOR = ORGANIZED CRIME...... Fire all DC33 and DC47, nothing but a bunch of lazy overpaid hacks!!!
Unions were good back when arguing that 9 year olds shouldnt work a 60 hour workweek in a steel mill. Their time has come and gone. If they are unhappy with the wage freeze, they should all enter into a lottery and if your number gets picked, you get fired. Get rid of 20% of the workforce and lower taxes and phila might not be such a bad place to live
wyno4: stupid is what stupid does, and you are one
Pay the police and firemen. Get rid of all the other unions, hire new college kids new to the city.
I love it! The union hack thinks for some reason the Constitution of PA does not apply to their private organization. Oh the Supreme Court can suck it they seem to want to say. Unions are the death of the American Dream plain and simple...
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Strike! Power to the unions!
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