Mayor Joe Ganim on Tuesday signed concession agreements with two collective bargaining units that will freeze wages for one year for a savings of roughly $500,000 for the current fiscal year in exchange for no layoffs for the remainder of their contracts that both end on June 30, 2018. The budget year that began July 1 assumes $4 million in union concessions so Ganim still has a ways to go to close that concession gap with other unions.
As a result of the agreements, layoffs for 27 city employees in various departments have been rescinded that impacted the National Association of Government Employees and the Bridgeport City Supervisors Association. The no-layoff clause covers nearly 1,000 members in both unions.
“We are very happy to have this agreement that represents significant savings for taxpayers and also saves jobs in the municipal workforce,” said Ganim in a statement. “We still have a significant budget hole to fill, and we hope that the spirit of cooperation is shared by the other municipal employee unions as we work through challenging fiscal times for the city. As Mayor, my door is always open to discussion with any unions and I hope to work together in partnership to achieve the needed savings.”
The two unions had initially rejected concessions, but readdressed the matter after Ganim announced pink slips a few weeks ago.
Workers covered under the Bridgeport City Supervisors Association received retroactive pay increases in the final days of Bill Finch’s mayoral administration last November. Ganim argued the money was not budgeted. The union went into court to uphold the wage increases. Ganim then used a layoff hammer to leverage some savings.
Off topic a little, is anyone surprised it took Bill Finch a little over a month to mess up the New York Thruway Authority with the falling of the crane on the Tappan Zee Bridge? Luckily no one was seriously hurt.
Donald Day–come on now, what did he do to cause the crane to fall down? Did he stroll over to the job site and push it over with one hand? Get serious. Your comment is not only off topic, but completely unrealistic. I’m surprised at you.
Oh Godiva, please. I don’t think you know me well enough to be surprised at anything I say. I certainly don’t you as I don’t know any person named Godiva. I would be concerned if my wife, minister or my family, both nuclear and extended were concerned about something I said, but certainly not someone who hides behind the cloak of anonymity and inscrutability. Everything Finch touched here, pardon my language, turned to shit. No women hired in the BFD for the first time in 30 years, no blacks hired in the BFD for the first time in 35 years, no blacks hired in the BPD in almost 40 years, leaving the city with a $20 million deficit while walking out the door with a $20,000 bonus for himself and his cronies.
He has a propensity for making bad decisions and I’m just wondering if this was one of those bad decisions.
That was Bill Finch’s fault? You’re one sick dude!
On topic again: Is Joe Ganim ready to authorize his finance people to provide a list of all those receiving checks from the City and identifying the department in which they work (including all grants employees, all union employees, all part-time positions, and all appointees–did I leave anyone out?)? Bill Finch provided a template of Citywide proportion each year with his budget. Joe Ganim2 has not done so. And department numbers in his budget proposal to the Council were made ludicrous when he posted 470 Police positions and 17 Vacancies at a time when PD has closer to 350 people on payroll. Trust but verify should be the expectation of “second chance” candidates. Ganim2 is not heeding the message. Will we see the true numbers soon so “cutting of payroll” and readjustments can be identified as real? Open, accountable, transparent and HONEST? Time will tell.
What JML has listed are examples of what the Financial Review Board would demand to see. Actually, it would have never approved a budget that had a hole in it. Union concessions of $4 million would not have been allowed as part of the budget unless there were signed contracts in place.
These are reasonable items to expect to see. It should be the city council demanding to see them as part of their budget oversight role.
When Rick Torres requested to see data, he was told by the Finch administration only the city council or committees, not individual members, had authority to request data. Let’s hope G2 is more forthcoming.
Is the city council demanding to see budget data like JML listed? Or, as JML says, are they lapdogs rather than watchdogs?
Tom White, I agree with you and I have a question, when Rick Torres mad his request to see data was he a Councilman? Remember, Mario Testa was probably not involved because Mario was not a Finch person but Paul Timpanelli was.
I’ve said this before, the City Council has a fear of JML because they think he can’t hurt them in their election, plus they are probably being told to keep their distance from him. I would think the information being sought could be obtained from the councilperson in JML’s district by asking and if he’s denied then it should be made known to the public.
Yes, he was a council person. City attorney told him to submit an FOI. It was covered by the CT Post.
Torres was told city departments would only respond to requests from the city council or its committees.
Jennifer, thanks, I remember the news story. Hamilton Burger’s reply under Mayor Finch’s term but has the same request been made during Mayor Ganim this time? Has the current 130th district council members been asked for this information? I know during my time on the fire union negotiating team we were able to get that information in order to negotiate our contract. Jennifer, that’s why I kept asking for those in Black Rock to expand their outreach past Black Rock because they would have more ability to have someone else in another district to get the information for them.
Why would or should other districts be able to get information and not Black Rock? #needtojointhissecretsociety.
Jennifer, Tom White // Jul 20, 2016 at 12:08 pm
Torres was told that city departments would only respond to requests from city council or its committees.
Jennifer, if City Council members have that information or they can get the information JML and others want then they should be able to have their own council member get the information or someone in another district to ask their council member if they could get the information. It’s called networking and expanding your base and getting out of Black Rock.
Ron, Rick Torres or any other member of the Council has the authority and right to be given any requested information that impacts their constituents. Rick was an elected official, and the voice of the people in the district he represented. I have never experienced a Council member being told to FOI anything. Rick should have challenged that in Court, and when he won have the City pay his legal fees. When Ernie Newton served under Mayor Paoletto he was forced to accept a decision the Mayor arbitrarily made. Rather than accept what he knew was wrong, he took the matter to Court, won, and as a result of that Court decision, a Charter change was made so no other Mayor could repeat that action. Thirty-five years later and I still have the copy of that decision. I know Court challenges can be expensive, but it’s the only way to right a wrong.
I heard Joe is asking the BFD to forego its raise scheduled for January 1, 2016. The BFD took a 0% increase in 2014 and givebacks last year so my hope is they tell Joe, we’ve given enough.
The union came to heel because no raise is much preferable to no wages.
Kid, I’m pro-union; I have gratefully maintained had it not been for union protection my Dad, who had six children to support, may not have been able to. I also realize the Unions of today are far different from the Unions I’m referring to, 50 to 60 years ago. Unfortunately. Ganim played chicken with the Unions and won. I predicted he would, it was a ploy he’s used before. I’m grateful for those who still have their jobs, but getting there didn’t involve fair, transparent negotiations.
This is a terrible deal. Joe gives up layoffs for peanuts? He is negotiating for hundreds of thousands when he should be focusing on hundreds of millions! Mayor Ganim should use unpaid furloughs as necessary and he should NEVER give up the right to do so.
DW–Ganim just spent ~$200K of the money the unions gave back. Where are the savings? This givebacks or layoffs threat is an insult to the taxpayers. How does this make sense? Do you need the workers or not? If the vote went the other way and the workers got laid off, how would the city run? If you do not need the workers get rid of them. Otherwise Ganim is just saying the city will keep you even though we do not need you as long as the other workers agree to pay a little bit of your pay. The layoffs were worth three times what the givebacks were.