Fast city-police accord ordered

In an abrupt reversal, a state panel ordered fast-track arbitration yesterday of Boston's dispute with its main police union, greatly boosting Mayor Thomas M. Menino's chances of ending the standoff with his most combative union before the Democratic National Convention begins Sunday.

The Joint Labor-Management Committee voted unanimously to appoint veteran labor lawyer Lawrence T. Holden Jr. to serve as arbitrator, with instructions to produce a settlement by 2 p.m. Thursday.

The move reversed the committee's ruling of last Thursday. Labor representatives on the committee dropped their opposition to an expedited timetable. The chairman of the committee's three-member police contingent, Paul J. Birks, voted for Menino's request, though he had earlier vowed to stage a walkout to prevent the motion from carrying.

The vote infuriated leaders of the Boston Police Patrolmen's Association, who filed a legal challenge to yesterday's order in Suffolk Superior Court. The union is arguing that yesterday's meeting occurred without appropriate public notice, that the committee lacks the authority to reverse its previous ruling, and that two-plus days will not give them adequate time to hash out all the contract issues with the arbitrator.

Thomas J. Nee, the union's president, said his members will now be more energized about convention-week protests, particularly at the Sunday night welcoming parties Menino has planned for delegates. Nee called the vote a ''political bag job," and said the union will again consider protesting outside the FleetCenter, which union leaders ruled out last month.

''Obviously, things are going to be reconsidered, as they were today," Nee said yesterday. ''We're absolutely going to protest, now more than ever. . . . And I'm telling you, they're going to be worse now than they were [going to be] before. I'm telling you, we're calling on everybody. People are coming in from around the country."

Menino said delegates should feel free to ignore police-led protests, since the union will have a contract in place by the time the convention begins. He said he believes that rank-and-file police officers are growing frustrated with union leaders' tactics, which he said are intended to score political points, rather than win a fair contract.

''If there's a contract in place, why would they picket?" Menino said. ''I've always said, what's the other agenda? I say to [delegates], come to the party. We're going to have a party."

Boston's convention organizers rushed to capitalize on the decision yesterday, notifying state delegations in a conference call that the city's standoff with its police union could be over this week.

At least six delegation chairmen have said they plan to stay away from delegation parties, at the request of Boston's police and fire unions, which are both working without contracts. Menino and convention planners are hoping that an arbitrator's judgment will persuade most delegates to attend convention events despite protests.

Several state party chairmen, including Dennis White of Ohio and Art Torres of California, said yesterday they will stand by their decision last week to boycott their delegation parties, regardless of whether the contract is settled before the convention. White also has said he will walk out of Menino's speech on the convention floor Monday night.

Yesterday's vote by the Joint Labor-Management Committee followed several days of frantic negotiations among Democrats and labor leaders, who are anxious to keep labor strife from detracting from the convention that will nominate Senator John F. Kerry of Massachusetts for president. Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts, has stayed in close touch with Menino, patrolmen's association officials, and leaders of the national AFL-CIO to see if protests can be averted, according to two Democrats involved in the Kerry campaign.

Last Thursday, the labor-management committee ordered arbitration for the patrolmen's association, but rejected Menino's bid to speed that arbitration to ensure a contract before the convention. Governor Mitt Romney responded a few hours later by naming a new chairman of the committee, Samuel E. Zoll, and asking the committee to reconsider.

Romney, Menino, and Attorney General Thomas F. Reilly have called for expedited arbitration, saying pickets would compromise public safety because police officers could be too tired for their 12-hour shifts if they are protesting during off hours instead of resting.

On the eve of yesterday's vote, labor representatives on the committee had vowed to obstruct attempts to expedite the arbitration process. Birks, a retired Springfield police officer, told the Globe Friday that he and other labor members would walk out of the meeting to derail a vote. ''There's going to be no vote taken of any kind," Birks vowed at the time.

Initially, when the committee met yesterday morning, Zoll said he would not allow a vote on expedited arbitration for at least a day, giving him time to meet with Menino and leaders of the patrolmen's association. But when Birks arrived to the meeting about half an hour later (he told Zoll he was stuck in traffic), he asked for the committee to meet behind closed doors, without reporters present.

When members emerged from the hourlong meeting, with Nee and other patrolmen's association officials glaring at him, Birks moved to vote on expedited arbitration, the same action he had vowed to walk out on. One union official stormed out of the meeting room, uttering an obscenity.

The subcommittee charged with handling the disagreement with the Boston police union passed the motion, 3 to 0. Last week, the subcommittee voted, 2 to 1, to order arbitration, with Birks dissenting, but elected not to expedite the process. The labor-management committee's vice chairman, Morris Horowitz, did not allow a vote on the expedited time frame last week, but both he and Birks voted yesterday for the issue to be considered.

Birks said that the decision was his alone and that he had received no outside pressure.

''After many hours of deliberations, I have decided to support an expedited arbitration process between the Boston Police Patrolmen's Association and the city of Boston," Birks read from a prepared statement. ''It is in everybody's best interest that the focus over the next 10 days be on ensuring a seamless and safe convention, which should lead to the Democratic nominee's election in November."

Birks is a vice president of the International Brotherhood of Police Officers, an umbrella group that has no affiliation with the patrolmen's association. That organization's president denied any involvement in the decision but voiced support for Birks's vote.

''I'm extremely proud of his actions," said David Holway, president of the brotherhood and the National Association of Government Employees. ''He stepped into a deep leadership void and made a difficult but right decision."

The vote drew a sharp condemnation from the president of the Massachusetts AFL-CIO, Robert J. Haynes.

He accused Menino and Romney of working together to ''poison" the Joint Labor-Management Committee, which is charged with working out municipal police and fire disputes.

''This is a political injustice with a predetermined outcome to rescue the mayor from embarrassment," Haynes said. ''This is a sad day for fairness and justice."

The patrolmen's association is hoping to get a hearing on its legal challenge this morning, just a few hours before it will send a representative to the first meeting with Holden, the arbitrator.

Zoll, a former chief justice of the state's district court system, said he is confident that yesterday's actions will stand up in court.

Menino said yesterday's ruling will guarantee ''finality" with the patrolmen's association, after the union has gone more than two years without a contract.

He also said he hopes that settlement will provide momentum that will bring a negotiated contract with Boston firefighters.

Rick Klein can be reached at rklein@globe.com. Andrea Estes and Frank Phillips of the Globe staff and Globe correspondent Michael Levenson contributed to this report.