NY reaches labor deal with supervisors of police, fire, correction and sanitation departments

The city has reached contract agreements with a coalition of eight unions representing almost 12,000 city employees who are supervisors in the police, fire, correction and sanitation departments, Mayor Bill de Blasio said.

The agreements are for seven-year contacts that include a 1 percent salary increase in the first year. That's different from the other union agreements the de Blasio administration has negotiated such as with the teachers' union, which didn't have increases in the first year.

Additional 1 percent raises take hold in each of the next three years, followed by raises of 1.5 percent, 2.5 percent and 3 percent in the last year. The contracts are retroactive to the end of the prior contacts, which range from March 2011 to July 2012.

De Blasio said Tuesday the wage increase in the first year for the members of the Detectives Endowment Association, Uniformed Fire Officers Association, Lieutenants Benevolent Association, Sanitation Officers Association, Correction Captains Association, Captains Endowment Association, Assistant Deputy Wardens/Deputy Warden Association and Uniformed Sanitation Chiefs Association was a reflection of the importance of the work they do.

"We couldn't have life in the city as we know it without them," de Blasio said. "The work they do, by definition it is difficult, it is complex, it is dangerous, it is sensitive."

The president of the Captains Endowment Association, Roy Richter, said, "The one thing that this agreement acknowledges is the service and the sacrifice that the members of this coalition give to the city of New York every day."

Richter said the unions had agreed earlier this year to come together as the Uniformed Superior Officers Coalition for negotiations and other uniformed unions had the option of joining but chose not to.

The contracts have to be ratified by the unions' memberships. City officials said that after health care savings, the new contracts would cost the city $413.7 million in the financial plan covering fiscal years 2015 through 2018, including $145 million over previous budget projections due to the raise in the agreement's first year.

If these contracts are approved, de Blasio said, 71 percent of the city's workforce would have agreements. None of the unions had current contracts when he took office in January.

The unions still with contracts unresolved included rank-and-file members of the police, fire, sanitation and correction departments.