Loot and Ladders: Deadlock in Local 718 Negotiations

Adam Gaffin reports on the City Council meeting yesterday, where Councillors Mark Ciommo (Allston/Brighton) and John Connolly (At Large) moved to postpone any Council action until the Mayor and Local 718 talked again.  They'll reconvene at 2 today to check on the progress of these talks.

Dave Wedge reports that Mayor Menino is predicting that $100M will go to public union workers over the next twenty years if the pay raise passes.

Adrian Walker proposes a two-part solution from the Council's hired expert, Professor Thomas Kochan, of MIT.

Kochan’s idea is for the union to defer one year of the raise — done — and for it to also agree to a one-year extension of the contract, which is due to expire on June 30.

Such an extension would ensure that the deferred 2.5 percent raise due June 30, 2011, will be the only raise firefighters get next fiscal year. If the contract expires when it is now scheduled, the union would be in a position to ask for another raise next year in addition to the one now deferred. That would seriously dilute the largesse of Kelly’s concession gesture.

WBUR reports on how negotiations went.  The Mayor is asking for the 2.5% raise to only apply to current firefighters, not any new firefighters who will be hired.

Richard Weir reports that talks lasted an hour (a whole hour!) before the meeting was adjourned to attend a funeral.  No report on if talks will continue.

Wedge and Weir report that it looks like neither side will give way.  Again.  We could always try arbitration!  Wait... that's how we got here.

Milton Valencia and Marissa Lang report on what Bostonians think about these negotiations.


What do you think? Please feel free to comment!