Boston’s mayor plans to implement far lower raises than what a union of municipal security guards is seeking, with her administration stating that the two sides have reached an impasse and the city can’t afford the group’s demands.
The decision comes after the union’s president criticized Mayor Michelle Wu for nullifying raises the City Council voted to give them in this year’s budget, saying that it was the latest slap in the face in what’s been an “embarrassing” negotiations process.
“Mayor Wu has nullified something positive for city workers, and continues to hurt the ones who earn the least,” Kevin Coughlin, president of the Boston Municipal Patrolmen’s Association, told the Herald.
He added that union members learned of the nullification through the press, “which is not respectful, or an indicator of bargaining in good faith.”
A spokesperson for Wu’s office hit back on Wednesday, stating that “this union’s and the City Council’s attempts to circumvent the collective bargaining process through the budgeting process were unfortunate and unfair to all of the city’s labor partners” who respect the proper protocols for negotiations.
Further, Boston’s director of labor relations sent a letter to Coughlin on Wednesday, informing him of the city’s belief that the two sides have reached an impasse after a year’s worth of failed negotiations, and that the city has decided to implement the raises included in its last offer to the union.
According to the letter, the city is planning to implement a nine-step schedule that would increase the minimum salary, or step one, from $35,998 to $41,184, and add an extra step to increase the maximum salary from $51,215 to $55,278.
This differs largely from what the union had proposed, which was for a starting salary of $46,890 with employees maxing out after eight years at $62,400, according to figures provided by Coughlin.
“The City of Boston bargained in good faith with the Boston Municipal Patrolmen’s Association for more than a year to adjust salaries up for these frontline workers, but the union’s demands were greater than what the city could meet,” the Wu spokesperson said.
“The city has decided to implement its last offer to the union, which represents healthy salary adjustments that conform to a compensation study we performed.”
Coughlin said the letter he received from the city’s director of labor relations, Renee Bushey, on Wednesday was the first contact the union has received from the city since the mayor opted to dismiss the Council’s salary increase on Monday, July 17. The correspondence effectively ends negotiations, he said.
“According to them, we don’t have a choice,” Coughlin said. “They are just going to implement it. We would not accept this offer. This offer is nowhere close to where we need to be.”
The letter essentially confirms what he said his position has been on the matter, which is that the raise offered by the Wu administration has “nothing to do with collective bargaining.”
Rather, Coughlin said the market analysis study performed by the mayor’s administration was “embarrassing.” It unfairly compared what the union’s municipal officers, who provide security at buildings like City Hall, make in Boston to two other cities that have a much lower cost of living: Sacramento, Calif. and Columbus, Ohio, he said.
The Council had voted to set aside $584,897 in funds for raises in this year’s budget, an amount that Wu noted in her nullification was the “exact sum” the Boston Municipal Patrolmen’s Association had requested in its collective bargaining negotiations with the city.
This was a violation of the city and state charter, Wu said in a letter to the Council last week, saying that the body improperly inserted itself into collective bargaining negotiations.