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by MARK DALY
Teachers, police officers and firefighters began picketing outside Madison Square Garden July 19 to protest Mayor Bloomberg's refusal to give ground in their contract fight.
Led by the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association, the unions were planning a round-the-clock protest to embarrass Mr. Bloomberg on the national stage on the same day that a work crew took control of the arena to prepare for the Aug. 30-Sept. 2 Republican National Convention. The PBA, the Uniformed Firefighters' Association, and the United Federation of Teachers are refusing to consider any wage agreement patterned after the recent District Council 37 contract, which provides a $1,000 signing bonus and 5 percent in raises over three years. Mayor Bloomberg wants municipal unions to improve their members' productivity or accept cuts in benefits for future employees in exchange for raises. The unions running the picket line say cops, firefighters and Teachers deserve an across-the-?board salary increase beyond
the unencumbered 3-percent hike won by DC 37.
"Two years without a contract, three years without a raise," UFA President Stephen J. Cassidy said, summing up his members' plight. "When I tell that to Republi?cans from across the country, they're stunned. They can't believe that the firefighters who responded to 9/11 can't get a contract."
The labor action, announced as an "informational picket," was able to proceed with few restrictions after a brief legal debate between the unions and the city three days earlier.
Concerns from the Police Department threatened to derail the union's plans July 15 after an NYPD commander in Manhattan said the picketing would interfere with the setup for the con?vention and suggested that protesters might need to as?semble across the street. The unions said their plan to occu?py the sidewalk and not use amplified sound meant they were free under the First Amendment to gather outside the arena without a permit.
The city backed down after the unions' attorneys met with the Law Department, a PBA official said. "Essentially, they gave us everything they wanted. They didn't want this to become a Federal case," said Al 0'Leary, the PBA's spokesman.
Under the agreement reached last Friday, individ?ual protesters can assemble at 20-foot intervals around the building to hand out leaf?lets, so as not to block crowds from Penn Station and the Garden's evening events, said Chief Michael Collins, an NYPD spokesman. The protest will run for at least 10 days, the unions said.
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