Pittsburgh police union rejects Mayor Peduto's 2.5% raise offer, dispute heads to arbitration

Pittsburgh’s police union on Monday voted against accepting a minor pay bump offer from Mayor Bill Peduto’s administration, sending the contract dispute to an arbitration panel, officials said.

Of 655 officers who voted, ranging from fledgling officers to lieutenants to recent retirees, 55% chose to reject Peduto’s offer in favor of arbitration, according to Robert Swartzwelder, president of Fraternal Order of Police Fort Pitt Lodge 1.

About 44%, or 294 officers, voted to accept Peduto’s offer of 2.5% raises retroactive to Jan. 1, 2019. About 336 unionized officers did not show up to vote.

On Tuesday morning, Swartzwelder plans to call Peduto to let him know that his administration’s offer failed by an 11% margin — just over the 10% margin required to satisfy the union’s “clear majority” rule.

The union leader reiterated that the union originally proposed 3.5% pay hikes, “which we believe our members would have voted overwhelmingly for,” Swartzwelder said.

Mayor Peduto: City can’t afford 3.5% pay hikes

Prior to Monday’s vote, which lasted from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., Peduto told the Tribune-Review that the city turned down the 3.5% pitch from the union because it can’t afford it. Peduto said city officials had wanted to avoid another round of arbitration, and so he hoped the union accepted the 2.5% increase.

“Barring city council raising taxes, we wouldn’t have the ability to pay what they had requested,” Peduto said. “That being said, they’re still going to see increases greater than any other contract that the FOP has ever received.”

Swartzwelder said Monday night that the union rejects the claim that a 3.5% raise would be too costly.

The union leader cited “speaking with a high-level city financial official, who has told us clearly that the (city’s) Comprehensive Annual Financial Report will demonstrate that the city has plenty of money to pay an additional 1% or more to its police officers — without placing an undue burden on the city’s taxpayers.”

Peduto said during an interview last week that the city made two offers hoping to address the union’s request for higher pay raises in the new contract.

Both Peduto offers prove unpopular

Union members last week considered both options, including the 2.5% raise, but did not approve either option with a 10% margin, per union rules.

Peduto’s second proposal was nixed from Monday’s ballot because it received less than 5% of Friday’s vote, or just 32 officers. It would have included a 2.75% pay increase retroactive to Jan. 1, 2019 and an additional 0.75% on July 1, 2022 — so long as the city could generate $3 million in savings on police overtime by the end of next year. The 2.75% option also was tied to undefined 4-day, 10-hour work weeks and other uncertainties that proved popular among union members.

With both options now off the table, the matter next is set to go before a three-person arbitration panel made up of a neutral representative and one each from the city and union.

Any pay raises would come in addition to separate raises approved in a new contract for 2019-22.

The union had been working without a contract since the old one expired in December 2018. An arbitration panel last month awarded a new four-year pact retroactive to January 2019. It provides raises totaling 4% annually, but splits them each year.

Officers will receive raises for 2019 starting with 1% from January to April. They receive an additional 1% in April and 2% in July.

Raises this year were 2% starting in January with another 2% coming in July. Next year, and in 2022, officers will receive 3% in January and 1% in July.

The police union has nearly 1,000 eligible voting members, including those who retired or resigned in 2018, 2019 or this year.