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Police union Prez Cotto and Mayor Elicker: Other side is to blame for no contract.
A long-expired police union contract is heading to binding arbitration, as the police union president and the mayor pointed fingers at one another for failing — so far — to get a new labor deal across the finish line.
That means a state-appointed third party will oversee negotiations and ultimately decide the final contract if the city and the police union can’t reach a deal.
According to city spokesperson Lenny Speiller, the State Board of Mediation and Arbitration imposed binding arbitration on the city and the police union on Aug. 2. He said that the arbitration panel was finalized on Wednesday, and an initial hearing is supposed to be scheduled within the next week and a half.
All of this comes more than two years after the last police union contract expired on June 30, 2022. The department currently has 81 vacancies according to the city’s latest monthly financial report.
Local police union President Florencio Cotto pushed news about the contract heading to arbitration into public view early Thursday morning when he sent out an email press release blaming the mayor for the lack of a deal.
He described binding arbitration as “a slap in the face to the hardworking men and women of the New Haven Police Department who put their lives at risk every day.” He accused the city of ending negotiations with the union to pursue binding arbitration. And he argued that certain terms of the city’s latest deal are unfair to New Haven police officers, and do not take into consideration the “true hours that New Haven’s police officers work.”
Cotto said that the city’s latest contract proposal asks police officers to “pay more for healthcare and prescription drugs;” creates a “tier 4 pension for new hires” and moves the police pension collection age up to 57 from 52; increases drug prescription copays by “over 100% with unsustainable cost share increases for members and their families;” and expands management rights in a way that “further exacerbate the already strained relationship between the union and the city.”
Mayor Justin Elicker responded to Cotto’s complaints Thursday morning during a press availability outside of Mauro-Sheridan School.
He said that the city’s latest proposal includes “the most generous contract of wage increases our police union has ever seen.” That would include a 21.5 percent salary increase over five years, as well as two years of retroactive payment.
The city’s latest proposal also includes a $20,000 salary increase for first-year officers — bringing their pay from $50,745 to $70,000, That would then increase to $78,000 after one year of service and to $82,827 after two years.
Elicker continued by stating that the city has agreed to “work rule changes” proposed by the union, which would effectively result in 15 more days off per year.
He described the proposed changes to healthcare benefits as fair and reasonable and as having been agreed to by plenty of other municipal unions.
As for pensions, he said, the city is not proposing to change anything for existing officers; the “modest change” proposed for new officers would push the pension collection age up from 52 to 57. (Police officers currently can and would still be able to collect a pension if they have completed 25 or more years of New Haven police service.)
Elicker then criticized Cotto and the union for taking a long time to get back to the city with counter offers. Their delays are the reason why contract negotiations have drawn out so long, he said, noting that the most recent proposal from the city was sent over in May, and the union provided its counter earlier this week.
“When the other side is not tangoing, you need two to tango,” Elicker said. That’s why the state has sent this contract to arbitration.
“They deserve a leader that is not posting inflammatory social media and press releases,” Elicker said about the police union. They don’t need a leader who says, “My way or the highway,” and who takes two to three months to respond to city proposals.
He concluded that the city is still willing to negotiate the union contract even as it heads to arbitration. “We want to get this thing done,” he said. “We don’t want to go to arbitration.”
In response to Elicker’s critique that Cotto and the union had been taking too long to respond to the city’s proposals, Cotto replied that the contract negotiations have been “long and challenging.” He claimed he reached out six months prior to the contract’s expiration “to avoid an impasse and get ahead of the need for a new contract,” and said the city and union didn’t start meeting until late 2022.
He argued that the union “has been responsive throughout this process,” which has included “several meetings with Mayor Elicker’s negotiating team” and has seen the exchange of “many different proposals.”
“At any point in this process, the Mayor can come back to the negotiating table with a
fair and equitable proposal for our members,” he concluded. “We welcome him to do so.”