by Doug Auer and Sally Goldenberg
Now that the cops have been given a raise, city firefighters want the same.
The Uniformed Firefighters Association announced today that it will be seeking wage increases for its 9,000 members.
Exercising a clause in its contract, the UFA is going to reopen the previous round of bargaining for the contract covering 2004 to 2006, union president Stephen J. Cassidy said.
"We want to get back to being on par with the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association," Cassidy told the Advance.
On Monday, the PBA achieved an award slightly higher than the other uniformed unions -- a $10,000 raise for police officers -- but it also made some concessions.
Cassidy also said the UFA would stop current negotiations for the contract ending with August of this year to resolve the contract in question.
Asked about the possibility of the UFA's returning to the bargaining table, Mayor Michael Bloomberg cautioned that not every union will get the same raise the PBA got through arbitration, with City Hall and the union at long loggerheads.
"If anybody has a reopener or any union wants to negotiate a contract further than what the current contract they have calls for, we'd be happy to do it," he said during a Q&A session with reporters at City Hall. "But this is certainly not open house and they'd have to come back with the same productivity or givebacks that the PBA was forced to take."
On the other hand, the mayor said, absent arbitration, the UFA "could probably have a lot more influence ... make [terms] a lot more palatable to their members as well as acceptable to the city."
A three-person panel awarded the city's 23,000 police officers a retroactive 9.73 percent raise and bumped starting salaries for recruits to $35,881 from $25,100.
After their first year on the job, officers will get a 4.5 percent raise; the following year, salaries will go up 5 percent.
And, top pay for veteran officers jumps to $65,382 from $59,588.
But the raise came at a cost.
Rookies must give up 10 of the current allotted 20 vacation days each year for five years; all cops have to use vacation days to qualify on the firing range and the city can reschedule tours with 24 hours' notice 20 times a year instead of 15, without paying overtime.
Should the other uniformed unions invoke their reopener clauses as well, it could cost the city $135 million between the fiscal years of 2005 and 2008, city officials have said.
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