Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!americast-post Newsgroups: americast.twt.metro From: americast-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: americast-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: Mayor's raise offer to police insufficient to keep talks Date: Tue, 3 Nov 92 15:19:55 EST Message-ID: \SE B;METROPOLITAN \HD Mayor's raise offer to police insufficient to keep talks active \BY Margaret Rankin \CR THE WASHINGTON TIMES Mayor Sharon Pratt Kelly's refusal to offer an acceptable salary increase has stymied contract talks, Fraternal Order of Police officials say. FOP Labor Committee Chairman Andre Lewis said the mayor made an offer, but it was less than the 11 percent union officials rejected last year. Officer Lewis has said recently the police would now welcome that 11 percent in light of the city's financial difficulties. "Budgetary restraints are definitely a major issue," he said, adding the mayor will need to direct more of her resources toward police if she wants to ensure the safety of D.C. residents. "My interpretation is that the mayor and the [D.C.] Council are failing to make the tough decisions to ensure they have the best qualified people on this job," Officer Lewis said. When Mrs. Kelly offered the 11 percent raise last year, FOP officials rejected it because they said it was not equitable with pay scales in other local jurisdictions. The FOP Labor Committee then took the issue through arbitration and was awarded the 22 percent raise it originally sought, only to have it overturned by the council this spring. This week, Officer Lewis says, union officials will be meeting with D.C. labor relations director Deborah McDowell to lay ground rules for a second mediation. "If the council were to overturn another pay raise arbitration award that we won, my feeling is it would throw the whole police department into a state of anarchy," Officer Lewis said. Vada Manager, spokesman for the mayor, said Mrs. Kelly remains committed to giving police a raise. "We do have a pay raise on the table with the FOP," he said. "I'm not prepared to discuss the terms of that pay raise right now. The mayor has been committed to a pay raise in earlier budgets as well." Police have gone almost three years without a raise. Recently, officers angered by fruitless contract negotiations threatened illegal job actions, such as staging a sickout on Halloween and blocking the 14th Street Bridge at rush hour. Officer Lewis strongly advised his membership not to participate in a sickout, informing them they might be fired. He says he believes his efforts at informing police of the consequences killed any support the sickout might have had. "We had gotten the word out [that] we were actively opposing it," he said. But Officer Lewis encouraged union members at the same time to participate in a protest to be staged at Chief Isaac Fulwood Jr.'s retirement dinner Nov. 7. This article is copyright 1992 The Washington Times. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM