Police plan picket despite arbitrator's award

A state-appointed arbitrator yesterday awarded Boston's police union 14.5 percent raises over four years, roughly splitting the difference between the amount union leaders were demanding and the best offer from Mayor Thomas M. Menino.

The judgment settles a two-year dispute between Menino and the Boston Police Patrolmen's Association with the most lucrative contract given to any city union in the current round of negotiations. But it will not bring Menino labor peace during next week's Democratic National Convention, union leaders vowed.

The patrolmen's association is still planning to protest at the parties Menino will hold to welcome convention delegates on Sunday night and at other convention-week events. The union has backed off threats earlier this week to picket at the FleetCenter.

Thomas J. Nee, the union's president, emerged from a late afternoon meeting with members of his leadership team saying that protests are appropriate because of the way his union was "railroaded" into expedited arbitration, a process he said prevented the union from fully making its case for a better contract.

In addition, Nee said his members feel strongly about pickets to support other city unions that lack contracts, including firefighters, police detectives, and police supervisors. He said the "rush job" of arbitration meant that some union priorities were not addressed in the contract.

"Our membership will be out, to show our contempt and frustration with our employer," Nee said. "This contract did not deal with the issues we presented at the bargaining table. Contracts aren't just about money."

Menino said he was relieved that the 1,400-member patrolmen's union, the largest of the city's police unions, is finally under contract and said he hoped most delegates would attend the parties regardless of protests, since the union leading the protests will be under contract.

"To my mind, it's resolved," Menino said. "It's a little more than I thought we'd have to settle for, but I will agree to that settlement."

But in a sign of his growing frustration with labor unrest, traffic worries, and protesters' lawsuits, the mayor said yesterday that he would not seek another national political convention for Boston in the future.

"Once in a career is enough for any mayor," Menino said in an interview with radio station WBZ. He later added that he has no regrets about bringing the Democrats to Boston for their convention and joked that he meant to say he would seek out a convention only "once per term."

On Monday, the Joint Labor-Management Committee ordered expedited arbitration for the patrolmen's association and charged arbitrator Lawrence T. Holden Jr. with resolving the matter. The fast-track process was a reversal from last week, when the committee declined to put arbitration on an expedited timetable, as Menino had requested. But Governor Mitt Romney intervened a few hours later by naming a new chairman, who later agreed to impose a deadline of yesterday on the arbitrator.

Holden was scheduled to make a final ruling by 2 p.m., but he delayed his decision by about two hours in hope that the two sides could reach a negotiated settlement. He shared an outline of his probable ruling with both sides about an hour before the deadline, to push along talks.

The two sides could not come to an agreement, and Holden's final judgment followed his outline. He gave the 1,400 members of the patrolmen's association raises worth 14.5 percent over the length of the four-year contract. Menino was offering 11.9 percent, and the union wanted 17 percent; Holden's figure splits the difference.

The contract also includes a $500-per-year increase in the annual bonuses awarded to veteran members of the department. Officers who had five years of experience on July 1, 1998, previously received an additional $1,500 a year, and now those officers will receive $2,000. Union members with 20 or more years of experience on that date will receive $4,000, up from $3,500 a year. Union leaders had hoped to make more of its members eligible for the longevity bonuses, but Holden ordered no changes to the cutoff date for qualification.

The police union was not able to persuade Holden to include two of its major priorities. Officers hired after July 1, 1994, are currently required to live in the city, and the union was looking to exempt more recent hires from that stipulation. In addition, Boston's Quinn Bill higher education salary incentives only apply to officers' regular salaries, while the union had wanted the pay boosts applied to overtime hours as well.

Two major Menino priorities were also ignored by the arbitrator. The city had sought greater flexibility to deny personal day requests and wanted the union to be required to drop its grievances over higher health insurance costs imposed by the city. It was granted neither request.

Shortly after the arbitrator's ruling was made official, Menino filed an $8.6 million spending request with the City Council, to cover the costs of the contract through the current fiscal year. The new contract calls for pay increases to be retroactive to July 1, 2002, when the previous pact expired. Several councilors said they were inclined to approve the deal.