Mayor sees promise in stalled contract talks

The police union is more ready than ever to go on strike, but DeStefano believes the end is finally in sight.

By Molly Ball

JULIA TIERNAN/YH Yale Negotiator James Juhas says the University won't yield to police demands, but Mayor DeStefano (not shown) thinks he can work something out.

At least one person is optimistic about negotiations between Yale and its police union: New Haven Mayor John DeStefano, Jr. "This will be resolved, one way or another, in the relative near future," DeStefano, who is mediating the dispute, said on Thurs., Nov. 5. "In the next couple weeks." But is there any reason for optimism? Neither side is willing to back down from its position on long-term disability (LTD) benefits; in fact, the Yale Police Benevolent Association (YPBA) is more adamant than ever about striking.

On Wed., Nov. 4, YPBA negotiators sat down with DeStefano to discuss the University's Fri., Oct. 9, contract proposal. According to YPBA Treasurer Chris Morganti, "Both sides believe [LTD] is the last important thing to resolve." But he sees no obvious compromise: "We're sticking with our proposal, they're sticking with theirs."

"We're not willing to go the distance to the YPBA position on off-duty disability," Yale Labor Relations Director Brian Tunney said. "There will be a resolution to this dispute, but what it is is not foreseeable."

On Mon., Oct. 5, for the first time in 28 months of contract dispute, the union sent Yale a letter of official intent to strike. The YPBA planned to strike on Fri., Oct. 16, to take advantage of national media attention generated by President Bill Clinton's, LAW '73, law school reunion, and the National Labor Relations Board requires unions to notify employers 10 days before striking. But on Wed., Oct. 8, the police rescinded the original letter, since Clinton's visit had been cancelled. According to Morganti, the YPBA is still serious about striking. "We haven't had a real reason, besides the Clinton visit, to call for a strike," he said. "[LTD] would be a reason." Last week, union leaders met with the YPBA's 54 officers and detectives to present the problem. "If Yale won't back down, I think [the membership] would vote to strike," Morganti said.

But Perez doubts that the YPBA's threats to strike will actually draw Yale's attention. "I don't think Yale takes us seriously," he said. "They just don't care. It might take three or four kids to get killed for them to wake up."

Yale police are currently working under the terms of a contract that expired in June 1996. Each side blames the other for the slow pace of negotiations. "This seems to be Yale's traditional way of negotiating," Morganti said. "You only get movement if you go through drawn-out maneuvering."

"[Negotiations have] been tedious beyond belief," Tunney said. "If there's any frustration on the YPBA side, I can assure you ours is greater."

Yale's last proposal addressed the YPBA's claim that police officers need greater disability benefits due to the oft-dangerous nature of their work. "We offered some enhancements to the current LTD plan that would apply to on-duty work, but they think these enhancements should apply all the time, whether an officer is on duty or working at home and falls off a ladder," Yale negotiator James Juhas said.

The proposed contract, however, specifies that the expanded LTD coverage would apply only to debilitating injuries incurred "in the line of duty"--that is, "when effecting an arrest, while responding to calls for police service of an emergency nature, or while handling calls for police service of a hazardous nature." Morganti believes this wording excludes the hazards of routine police work. "If I was on standing duty on a corner and a car came up on the sidewalk and broke my legs so badly I couldn't get back to work, [the injury] would be considered `on duty' but not `in the line of duty,'" Morganti said. "It's a narrow definition set up to cheat people out of the benefits they deserve."

Tunney, however, believes that expanding the proposed LTD enhancements would be simply "unreasonable." "What about the other 4,000 Yale employees who are not police officers? If we do this for police officers, do we do it for them?" Tunney asked. "We just do not believe that it is appropriate for members of the YPBA to be treated any differently than other employees--although there are refinements in the police retirement plan that other employees don't have."

Tunney's reasoning bothers Morganti. "They keep comparing us to other employees, but our line of work is totally different. We're not comparable to [other employees], we're comparable to other officers throughout the country."

Most police officers, including the New Haven police, are covered by a "disability pension," while Yale's plan is "disability insurance." Under the disability pension, officers who have worked a certain number of years get the same disability benefits for on- or off-duty injuries. However, Juhas points out that this doesn't mean other officers get a better deal. "The Yale police have a higher salary and better overall benefits than the New Haven Police," he said. "It goes both ways."

Juhas believes everyone will benefit from a speedy resolution: "[The police] haven't had a raise since July '95. I think they're not doing a good service to their members by delaying. If we settled today, they would receive an immediate pay increase of over four percent."

DeStefano, who intervened in May to facilitate negotiations, believes his intervention will help. "It's in the city's interest not to have labor strife with its largest employer," he said. And the mayor remains optimistic: "Both sides have approached the effort to resolve the contract seriously."

Back to News...