KYW Newsradio Team Coverage
Philadelphia mayor Michael Nutter on Monday afternoon launched another salvo in the ongoing contract talks with city worker unions: he has frozen scheduled pay raises for thousands of workers.
KYW's Mike Dunn reports that the mayor is freezing what are called "step" and "longevity" pay increases that city workers normally get on the anniversary of when they start in a particular position.
City managing director Camille Barnett says the move applies to all civil service workers, union and non-union:
"Employees are frozen at their current salary."
And Barnett insists that this is being done not as a negotiating ploy, but rather to save money:
"We have to be able to reduce the cost of our workforce if we are to meet this budget."
Nutter's budget experts put the savings at roughly $80 million over five years. Barnett expects negotiations with the unions to resume later this week.
KYW's Steve Tawa reports that union leaders are vowing to fight the freeze on what had been routine raises based on the time city workers have spent doing their the job.
Pete Matthews, the president of District Council 33, says his blue collar workers union -- which represents more than 10,000 workers -- is filing an unfair labor practice complaint with the state:
"It's a violation of our contract."
When the city began its new fiscal year July 1st, some 20,000 municipal workers -- DC 33, DC 47, the white collar workers, as well as the police and fire unions -- continued working under terms of their current contracts.
Matthews says that is the loophole the city is trying to exploit:
"While we don't have a new contract, they believe they can freeze it. The key word is 'freeze' it, not take it from us, until we get a new contract."
Matthews says he fully expects to get those step and longevity increases retroactively, either through arbitration, or once they finalize a new contract.
KYW's Larry Kane reports that the relative peace between the Philadelphia government and its' unions may soon end thanks to a forceful move by Mayor Nutter.
Nutter's move to freeze scheduled pay raises came as a surprise. The budget crisis is forcing him to take action, but the bold move comes as negotiations are about to resume with municipal unions who have passed their contract deadlines without taking or threatening to take action.
The Mayor did not hold a news conference to make the announcement, but that was intentional. Nutter was careful not to infuriate the union leaders since both sides are cooperating on the contract extension.
This freeze is one of the most dramatic moves yet in his efforts to tame the fiscal crisis, but union sources tell us that the biggest complaint is not the wage freeze but the fact that it was made public before the negotiations resume.
(File photo)
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