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Solving Menino’s labor problems
Contracts are finally settled and everyone’s happy -- for now
BY ADAM REILLY
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MONDAY, JULY 26, 2004 -- When Boston Mayor Tom Menino announced Sunday morning that the city’s firefighters had received a new, arbitrated contract -- giving them raises of 10.5 percent over three years, about the same as Boston’s police patrolmen -- he beamed like a little kid on Christmas morning. And no wonder. With the welcome receptions for the delegates attending this week’s Democratic National Convention less than seven hours away, Menino had just won a decisive victory in his protracted battle with the Boston Police Patrolmen’s Association, which had threatened to picket the receptions and other events during convention week. Flanked by the leaders of the firefighters’ union and former state Senate president Tom Birmingham, a key liaison for Menino in the city’s labor negotiations, Menino was able to tell the assembled press that 98 percent of Boston’s municipal workers now had contracts. More important, he heard the firefighters’ negotiators express satisfaction with their new contract -- something BPPA head Tom Nee resolutely refused to do after his union received an arbitrated settlement last week -- and say the mayor had treated them with respect. "I’m very pleased to say that I’m going to enjoy the convention from this moment on," declared Menino, who was wearing a tie so loud it had to be celebratory. After the obligatory Q-and-A in City Hall’s Eagle Room, a photographer from one of the dailies marveled at the cheery tone of the press conference. "I figured they’d all stand up and sing ‘Kumbaya,’" he muttered. Absent Menino’s morning announcement, the tone around the city would have been radically different last night. With the BPPA’s membership under contract but seething, and the firefighters still contractless, delegates entering the lavish soirees aimed at showcasing Boston’s neighborhoods would have had to cross picket lines first -- or turn back, if their need to show solidarity with labor outweighed their hankering for sesame noodles, North Atlantic salmon, and free booze. But now delegates could attend with clean consciences, instead of guiltily eating and drinking or trekking to Florian Hall in Dorchester for the alternative shindig scheduled by labor leaders. For Menino, soon-to-be presidential nominee John Kerry (whose victory in Iowa was due largely to the efforts of the national firefighters’ union), and the convention’s organizers, everything was copasetic. Inside the Massachusetts delegation’s reception at the Boston Public Library, though, reaction to the day’s news was mixed. Sam Tyler of the Boston Municipal Research Bureau warned that city government -- already burdened by skyrocketing health care and pension costs -- would be seriously burdened by the new settlements. Yet Tyler, aware that Menino forced several unions to settle for less than they’d requested by standing his ground, was relatively sanguine when asked to grade Menino’s handling of the collective bargaining process. "I don’t like to give grades, and I hate to do this, but I give him a B-plus," Tyler said. Then he noted that the last-minute settlements, by preventing ugly labor strife, could actually help the city’s bottom line long-term. "The economic discussion of the convention has all been about what the immediate economic benefit is," Tyler said. "Assuming this is all successful, I think it gives people a sense of what the new Boston is, how attractive it is. And hopefully it gives continued economic benefit for years to come." Congressman Steve Lynch -- a labor lawyer and staunch union supporter who’s thought to have possible mayoral aspirations of his own -- balked at calling the recent settlements victories for the mayor. "I used to negotiate these contracts, and I always look at it this way: If you can get 90 percent of what you want, it’s a good deal for either side. And that’s sort of where they ended up." Lynch also offered some unsolicited advice for Nee and the city’s other union leaders. "What I would do is try to convince my membership that I did the best I could under the current circumstances, and maybe in two years the mayor’s going to be in a position where he can be more generous," he said. "That’s not the last contract they’ll negotiate. And hopefully the atmosphere will be less charged then than in the current situation." Still, it was hard to take issue with the conclusion offered by state Senator Dianne Wilkerson. "I think that in the end, the mayor looks like a hero," Wilkerson said as she stood in the BPL’s main reading room. "I think he looks like the winner in this. The reality is, he stood his ground in tight fiscal circumstances, and he was professional in his comments. As he said along, his goal was to resolve this before the gavel fell Monday. And he did it."
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