Police union slams bonus proposal

In language that may preview the tenor of labor negotiations between the city and the Memphis Police Association, union officials on Tuesday slammed a proposed $6.1 million retention program as a “slap in the face.”

On Monday city officials announced the bonus program, which is funded by a privately issued grant through the Memphis Shelby County Crime Commission. The program would offer officers with three to 11 years of experience a bonus ranging from $6,400 to $7,000 over four years if they commit to staying with the Memphis Police Department for that time.

In conjunction Mayor Jim Strickland added that his administration was proposing raises for officers based on their length of service. He plans to recommend a 2 percent pay increase and a onetime $1,600 bonus for officers with at least 12 years on the force. Officers with 11 years or less would receive a 1 percent raise, for a total budget impact of about $4.4 million.

Union officials blasted the retention grant in their news conference Tuesday afternoon

“This is a slap in the face, a punch in the gut,” MPA vice president Essica Littlejohn said. “Do what’s right.”

City spokesman Ursula Madden defended the proposal in a statement after the union’s news conference.

“We’ve spent countless hours listening to officers and the MPA to learn their concerns,” Madden said. “What was announced Monday is one of the many steps we’ve taken in the past year in response to that feedback. We’re proud of what we’ve implemented and we’re moving forward.”

Union officials called the retention program an attempt to negotiate outside the confines of their contract. City and union leaders held their first bargaining session earlier Tuesday.

Additional sessions are expected to try and agree to a new contract by April 1, MPA lead negotiator Matt Cunning-

ham said.

“The city cannot enter into contracts that affect wages with any individual employee,” Littlejohn said. “That is done with members of our bargaining unit through negotiations.”

Madden disagreed, saying, “What we announced Monday was not outside the rules of the negotiation process.”

Union president Mike Williams predicted that the labor battle “could get ugly.” City officials and union leaders have already sparred over a series of billboards the Memphis Police Association has placed around town that highlight last year’s record-setting homicide rate. Those billboards read, “Welcome to Memphis: 228 homicides in 2016, down over 500 police officers.”

Williams remains insistent that the city must restore health care cuts for retirees and spouses that were instituted in 2014 to help the city meet its obligations to the pension fund.

Williams suggested the grant money instead be used to restore some of those cuts.

“There may be some things that we can do with that $6.1 million, restore the spouses to the health care,” Williams said. “Or we could put that toward trying to help the retirees out. That’s something that’s desperately needed.”

Madden noted in the city’s statement that the $6 million grant is a one-time, four-year grant that can only be used for retention and recruitment. She said restoring health care benefits to 2014 levels for officers would require a 35- to 50-cent property tax increase. “The health care changes were made so that we could fully fund our pension.”