BUFFALO
Control board OKs city employees’ raises
Mayor Byron W. Brown says he hopes there will be a new era of labor peace in the city following the control board’s unanimous vote to approve labor pacts giving raises to hundreds of city and school district employees.
More than 470 white-collar workers in City Hall will see their paychecks increase by an average of 17.2 percent through mid-2011. About 120 political appointees will receive the same increases.
Meanwhile, 244 summer food services workers in the school district will receive raises averaging 8.7 percent.
Wednesday’s approval of the white-collar pact signaled the first time a major union has inked a new deal since the control board was created five years ago.
While some control board members implied that contract concessions didn’t go far enough, they credited negotiators for weathering a stormy nine-month bargaining process that included a lot of “give-and-take.”
The Buffalo Fiscal Stability Authority wasn’t at the bargaining table, but control board Chairman Paul J. Kolkmeyer thinks the panel played an indirect role in shaping the agreement through its ongoing insistence that the city find ways to rein in employee benefit costs.
Workers will receive the first of four 3 percent raises retroactive to last July. This year, employees will receive a $2,000 boost in base pay, plus another 3 percent raise. A typical white-collar employee making $37,000 would see an increase of about $6,800 over four years.
City Comptroller Andrew A. SanFilippo said employees should receive their raises by mid-August, if not sooner.
In return for the raises, white-collar workers will switch to a less expensive health insurance plan that preserves existing benefits. Newly hired workers will pay a portion of their health insurance costs and will wait longer before reaching the top pay tier. New employees also will be capped at 20 days of vacation, versus 25 days for existing workers. All employees in the unit will give up one personal day off.
Wayne Mertz, deputy treasurer of the control board, thinks the concessions are a start, but he said more must be done in future contracts to bring employee benefits in line with the region’s economic climate. Mertz said when all paid time off is tallied, veteran white-collar employees can take off more than 50 days a year.
“In other words, once a week; it’s a four-day [work] week,” Mertz said.
The control board estimated the cost of the new contract to be $7.4 million over four years, higher than the $6.1 million projection made by city budget officials. Still, the oversight panel determined that the pact was affordable to the city.
Brown said he’s hoping the accord will spur other city unions to go to the bargaining table. But he stressed that contracts must be affordable.
“The bottom line is being reasonable and realistic,“ he said.
White-collar employees haven’t had raises in five years, said union President Michael F. Drennen. The agreement has had an immediate and highly visible effect on worker morale, he said.
“I’ve seen smiles on some people’s faces that I haven’t seen in years,” he said.
