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NYPD sergeants’ union, city remain deadlocked on a contract

Mayor promises agreement

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Hundreds of NYPD sergeants and their allies converged on West 125th Street last Thursday to decry the city’s stance on a longstanding salary issue their union says is undermining both morale among its members and recruitment into the rank. 

The Sergeants Benevolent Association and city labor negotiators have been locked in a contract dispute for months, with the union’s president, Vincent Vallelong, saying that the city's latest offer would keep hundreds of sergeants at lower salary than the officers they supervise. The presumptive deal would also keep some recently promoted sergeants earning more than others with years in the rank.

“We're not asking for any more than anybody else,” Vallellong said at the late-morning rally in windy, frigid temperatures across the street from the Apollo Theater, just ahead of Mayor Eric Adams’ State of the City address at the storied venue. “We're not asking to break pattern,” he added, referring to agree-to salary protocols arrived at by public-sector unions and city labor negotiators. 

Of the NYPD’s roughly 4,500 sergeants, about 1,200 are making as much as $12,000 to $13,000 less a year than a police officer, according to the union. The difference is attributable to pay increases included in the Police Benevolent Association’s April 2023 deal with the city. That deal followed some six years of negotiations with labor officials. 

A few months after that contract was approved by rank and file officers, the SBA was among 11 uniformed unions that concluded negotiations on the economics of a tentative five-year contract agreement in June 2023 that included compounded 17.77-percent raises, matching the pattern negotiated by the city and the PBA in April 2023. But unit bargaining — negotiations on matters pertaining to the SBA alone — has stalled. 

The union last fall compiled a salary chart, which shows that a newly promoted sergeant with five years as a cop will earn $117,528, including payable benefits, and $6,359 more than the contract that includes the pattern raises. But an officer with five and a half years on the job will earn $119,845, a difference of $2,317.

According to the chart, it’s not until the fourth step when sergeants, in this case with less than 10 years on the force, would surpass the salary paid to officers by earning $123,021. 

While Vallelong and the mayor have spoken about the pay disparity issue, the SBA’s concern “seems to have fallen on deaf ears,” the union leader said. “He's here to do his State of the City. What about the state of the NYPD? What about the state of the sergeants who run this city?” Vallelong asked. 

Off-duty sergeants at the rally last Thursday.
Off-duty sergeants at the rally last Thursday.

‘Committed to a fair solution’

City officials say the stalemate is depriving sergeants of wage increases agreed to in 2023.

But, noting that the two sides are “going through the mediation process,” a City Hall spokesperson, Liz Garcia, said the city is “committed to coming to a fair solution that will continue to protect public safety."

Vallellong said he would bring an amended contract offer to his members “tomorrow” if the 1,200 sergeants making less than the officers they are supervising are made whole. 

With negotiations remaining deadlocked after more than a year, the SBA, bidding for arbitration, filed a declaration of impasse with the city’s Office of Labor Relations in October.

“Why would you want to take this job with more responsibility with less pay?” Vallelong said following the rally. “What CEO in America is going to tell me it’s OK to have his bosses that they’re going to make less money than the people they supervise? 

The two sides last met about two weeks ago. The five-hour session, Vallelong said, “went nowhere.” A next mediation session is being scheduled for first week of February, 

Members of the City Council’s conservative Common Sense Caucus attended the rally in support of the union’s position. Among them, Council Member Joe Borelli said the city’s stance was endangering public safety since it was dissuading officers from stepping up a rank.

“Every other job in the city by the way, if you're a supervisor you make a little more than the people you’re supervising. This is not rocket science, this is not socialism, this is not crazy pipe dreams,” Borelli said. “You get promoted, you get a bit of a bump, that's how it works.” 

A few minutes later, the mayor, noting that the city has essentially agreed contract terms with all of its uniformed workforce, promised an agreement with the sergeants union.
“And yes, we will reach a contract with the SBA,” the former police captain said during his State of the City address. “Trust me, we will.”

richardk@thechiefleader.com

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