Police contract costs city $60M
Backroom talks led to tentative deal Key work schedule issue pulled off table
It was old- fashioned backroom dealing and not just hard negotiations that lead to the breakthrough tentative agreement yesterday that put Toronto police back at the top of the pay scale among Ontario forces. Both sides claimed it was a good deal but details emerging out of the 30-hour marathon negotiations showed the police board was the big loser. It is estimated the deal, reached at 7: 15 a. m. yesterday, will cost the city an extra $60 million for policing over the life of the three- year contract. On top of that, police officers will continue their job action — refusing to issue traffic tickets and wearing baseball caps instead of regulation police hats — until the deal is ratified, a process that could take three weeks. One of the key issues — the compressed work week schedule — was pulled off the table by the board and will now be the subject of separate talks by a joint committee. If they can’t resolve the issue in three years, the issue will go to arbitration.
Just last week, vice- chair Pam McConnell said the work schedule was key to saving money and putting more officers on the street. “ This is about dollars and sense,” she said at the time. Not only did the board give up its fight over its insistence that officers work an additional 3.5 hours a month, it also yielded on the other two key issues: retention pay for senior officers and the length of the contract, according to sources.
“ You don’t always get what you want,” McConnell said. “ We believe we accomplished all our goals.” But a senior police official said: “ The union got what they wanted.”
Tired and drained from the lengthy negotiations, police board chair Alok Mukherjee said the job action played no part in reaching what he called a fair tentative agreement. He did not admit defeat and would not comment on the details of the deal until it has been ratified.
“ We believe that this tentative agreement best balances the interests of the board, the men
and women of the Toronto Police Service and most importantly the people of Toronto.” Toronto Police Association president Dave Wilson said members will not return to official police attire and regular patrol duties until the contract is ratified. “ We will continue with job action. ( Until the ratification vote and) discipline issues are resolved to our satisfaction.”
Wilson declined to discuss the issues further, saying he preferred to focus on the positives. Members of the association began a job action Oct. 11, trading in their police hats for association baseball caps. The action quickly escalated with officers refusing to write traffic tickets, only responding to radio calls, and parking their patrol cars between calls. So far the city has lost $ 1.7 million in ticket revenues because of the job action.
Chief Bill Blair, who was not directly involved with the negotiations, said he was “ very, very pleased” a tentative deal had been reached, and hoped the focus could return to policing. An internal investigation is continuing into officers who defied the chief’s order not to wear their uniforms to a Nov. 2 rally outside City Hall, Blair said.
“ Matters of discipline are not in any way related to contract negotiations. . . . They are totally unrelated to today’s tentative agreement,” Blair said. The genesis of the tentative deal began with a phone call between two old friends just hours after the union announced 21⁄ weeks ago that it was going to park its cruisers and only answer radio calls. The conversation on Oct. 20 was between former police union boss turned broadcaster Craig Bromell and Ralph Lean, the legendary bagman and chief fundraiser for Mayor David Miller’s re- election campaign.
If the dispute had dragged on, the police job action could have become a major issue in next November’s municipal election with Miller being labelled as soft on crime and non- supportive of his police force, the source said.
Also, if the whole messy matter had gone to arbitration, chances were the board would have had an uphill battle getting a decision that included major clawbacks. Arbitration can be a slow process, dragging on for months and possibly into the middle of Miller’s re- election campaign.
So, according to sources, the question put to Bromell by Lean was: “ How do we get this done?” The solution that was arrived at by both men, the sources said, was a one- year deal that included removing the contentious issue of the compressed work week by sending it to a joint committee of union and board officials for further study.
Miller was behind the plan but the union rejected it because it wanted a three- year deal.
That failed plan for resolving the contract dispute was the blueprint for yesterday’s tentative deal.
After last Wednesday’s rally at Nathan Phillips Square, the plan again gained traction. This time, however, it was Hugh Mansfield, of Mansfield Communications, who got the ball rolling. Mansfield’s client is the Toronto Police Association and he contacted Lean, sources said. On Friday, Lean then called Bruce Scott, executive assistant to the mayor. Talks between Lean, Mansfield and Scott continued Saturday when the trio
tried to find common
ground to bring the
sides back to the table.
By Sunday, they had
achieved their goal
with the union and police board resuming
discussions that night. Their job done, the three men simply stayed back and waited for word that a deal had been reached, sources said.
“ They sent the pitbull (McConnell) in and when it failed, they decided they needed an out,” said one source familiar with the negotiations.
Wilson held an afternoon news conference yesterday, calling the deal a good one. A meeting of the 7,700- member association will be held Sunday when Wilson will present the details of the proposed deal. He said ratifying the deal could take up to three weeks. The deal includes a 3.75- percent raise in the first year to make Toronto officers the highest paid in Ontario, but just by “ a cup of coffee” over officers in Peel Region, said a source familiar with the deal. The officers will get a 3.1- per- cent raise in the second year and 3 per cent in the final year of the contract. The board had asked for a fouryear deal. The contract will improve policing and enhance safety for all residents, Mukherjee said. One of the board’s priorities during talks was to ensure it had enough money to hire more front-line officers. McConnell said the board remains committed to hiring 50 more officers this year and 150 next year.
“ This is a deal everyone can live with,” she said. But both McConnell and Mukherjee couldn’t provide concrete examples of how this deal will accomplish savings and better police resources.
Miller said he was also pleased with the tentative deal
“ The agreement gives the officers what they’ve been asking for and what they deserve, which is to be the best paid in the province of Ontario. It also gives the City of Toronto and the police board what they needed: the ability to work with the officers to find better ways to get them on the streets when they’re needed,” he said. Reached yesterday, Bromell said he didn’t have any comment on the contract negations. Lean could not be reached for comment.