A few days ago, Mayor Mike, more or less with a gun to his head, was forced to give the men and women of the NYPD a contract granting them 5% a year for each of two years. The arbitrator complained that he’d rather have given them 5% a year for four years, but was only authorized to grant a two year contract. Thus, the NYPD has a brand new contract that expired one year ago, and must negotiate a new one.
The cops were forced to give back one personal day a year, and cannibalize their young, one of Mayor Mike’s innovations, paying new recruits a princely 25 thousand a year. Police pay will max out at about 59K.
NYPD hears a lot of self-serving blather from the like of Mayors Mike and Rudy about what heroes they are, but when it comes time to pay them, neither willingly rises to the occasion. Particularly egregious was Giuliani demanding to remain in office without standing for re-election. He rationalized this naked power grab by saying he had to keep up the "morale" of police and firefighters, all of whom had vainly waited years for him to grant them a contract. NYPD, once Rudy's staunchest supporter, had already begun to demonstrate against him.
Nonetheless, through good times and bad, Rudy and Mike could always locate megabucks to subsidize billionaires trying to erect sports stadiums.
How cops are supposed to buy homes in this city is a mystery to me. Perhaps Mayor Mike plans to let them sleep in one of the new stadiums he’s subsidizing with transportation dollars.
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