Statement on newsletter

The PBA newsletter reflected my views and that of the PBA Executive Board, and those views were committed to paper to keep our members fully informed about what we’ve accomplished over the last two contract rounds and to respond to unprecedented and unwarranted public criticism leveled first by the DEA and LBA of the PBA’s arbitration awards.

If we had wanted to sabotage the DEA’s ratification process, we would have gone public before the contract was submitted to – and rejected by – the DEA membership. But our statements certainly seem to have hit a nerve, judging from the ill-considered comments to The Chief-Leader by the presidents of some of the other police unions.

The PBA has demonstrated its ability to negotiate in the last two rounds by gaining for its members hundreds of millions of dollars in additional compensation over and above what the city’s last best offers were – insulting offers, by the way, as all uniform unions agreed – and about $5 million in extra health and welfare benefits.

It is ironic, indeed, that these unions are disparaging an arbitration process that has resulted in tens of millions of dollars in additional compensation to their members in the last two rounds. As in the past, their comments lead me to believe that these union leaders are singing from the city’s sheet of music.