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by WILLIAM MURPHY
Police and firefighters disgruntled about the lack of a new labor contract are planning a highly visible protest at the Republican National Convention.
And - to paraphrase Russian comedian Yakov Smirnoff - if the party won't come to them, they'll go to the party.
The two main unions representing the workers said they plan to protest not only at Madison Square Garden, but at parties and receptions when Mayor Michael Bloomberg drops in.
The off-duty workers "are going to be looking at social events the mayor will be at with an eye toward going there," said Al O'Leary, a spokesman for the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association.
O'Leary and representatives of the Uniformed Firefighters Association would not reveal any special displays envisaged for Bloomberg and the national media. On Friday, however, the UFA's Web site posted copies of rolling billboards that will be towed around the city during the convention.
The two uniformed services plan to appear in their trademark T-shirts - blue for police officers and yellow for firefighters.
Those colors are the same they have been wearing for almost a month as they picketed the Garden while it was being prepared for the convention, and then moved on to "pop-up" demonstrations, where they showed up at public appearances by Bloomberg.
"Our people wear blue shirts saying, 'Police officers for a fair contract.' That's pretty much our signature," O'Leary said.
"Even the mayor's security people, who are our members, are conditioned to seeing the blue shirts at events," he said.
Even as many officers and firefighters will be working overtime and long shifts during the course of the four-day convention, their unions are taking advantage of their paramilitary background to organize and stage protests.
Both departments reach from their respective headquarters through command structures down to firehouses and precinct station houses around the city. The Uniformed Firefighters Association and the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association are organized along similar lines, reaching from the union leadership down to the rank-and-file.
Just as borough or division commanders of the departments have elaborate plans for mobilizing in an emergency, so too do their counterparts in the unions.
"Each borough [union] command has a borough trustee and a borough financial secretary. They're the coordinators for each event. They pick up the shirts, pick up the signs, go to the location," O'Leary said.
Tom Butler, spokesman for the Uniformed Firefighters Association, said the union has a similar system.
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