Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg announced a 17 percent raise yesterday for the city's 6,600 sanitation workers as part of a 51-month deal that includes what he called an important productivity breakthrough: the one-person garbage truck.þþThe tentative contract would give the Uniformed Sanitationmen's Association the largest raise won by any municipal union in the current round of bargaining, partly because it is longer than most of the other contracts. The sanitation workers' raise is even higher than the teachers' 15 percent pay increase over a similar period. þþMr. Bloomberg said the sanitation raises would be financed by innovative and far-reaching productivity measures, like the one-person truck, in which one worker, the driver, would collect the large, metal ÿroll-onÿ garbage bins, often used at schools and housing projects, and then take them to the dump to be emptied. This is the first time that New York City sanitation workers will use a one-person truck, although the change would start with only 45 trucks a day. þþAt a City Hall news conference, the mayor cited another significant productivity advance: the union agreed to longer collection routes, so each truck will pick up more garbage each day.þþTaken together, productivity measures are expected to help the Sanitation Department cut its work force by 200 employees. This and other measures create savings that the Bloomberg administration is recycling back into raises as part of the mayor's insistence that union pay increases be financed by specific savings.þþThe union's president, Harry Nespoli, said, ÿIn the long run, you have a better-paid work force, more productivity and a better deal for the New York City taxpayer.ÿ þþAs Mr. Bloomberg invariably does in announcing new union contracts, he was enthusiastic about the workers involved, this time extolling the sanitation workers for keeping the streets so clean, clearing the snow so promptly and starting work before dawn, often in rainy weather.þþÿThe challenge has been to find a way to give them the raises they deserve,ÿ Mr. Bloomberg said. þþThe one-member truck is inspired in part by a much-praised breakthrough under Mayor Edward I. Koch. In 1980, his administration persuaded the sanitation union to agree to operate many trucks with two workers instead of three, with the two workers receiving a pay supplement for each day's work.þþMr. Nespoli said the two-person truck has saved the city $2.1 billion since it was introduced. City Hall officials said the Sanitation Department would seek to increase one-person trucks and the ÿcontainerizingÿ of garbage in large metal bins. þþÿThis innovation will generate considerable savings,ÿ Mr. Bloomberg said.þþUnder yesterday's deal, the drivers of the one-person trucks - positions expected to go to workers with the most seniority - are to receive an extra $80 each day.þþIn another efficiency measure, the city added pay incentives for workers to empty their trucks during their shift, instead of hauling their fully loaded trucks back to the garage and then taking them to a transfer station the next day. When workers dump their loads, whether trash or recycling, during the same shift they pick them up, they will receive a $5 pay premium for that shift. þþJames. F. Hanley, the city's labor commissioner, said the deal included substantial cost savings: 1.8 percent of the $520 million sanitation payroll in productivity increases, 2.67 percent from salary rescheduling and 0.75 percent from extending the contract an extra three months to 51 months.þþMr. Nespoli said it was the toughest bargaining of his time as a union official, adding that Mr. Bloomberg's insistence on financing raises with productivity increases made it more difficult.þþÿIn this new agreement, the savings which are generated through productivity will go to my union members,ÿ said Mr. Nespoli, whose union is part of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. ÿIn past contracts, the savings were split between the city and the union.ÿþþThe pact runs from Nov. 23, 2002, when the sanitation union's last contract expired, until the end of March 1, 2007.þþAdministration officials said the deal calls for a retroactive 5 percent raise effective Nov. 23, 2002, another 5 percent raise effective Nov. 23, 2003, a 3 percent raise effective March 2, 2005, and a 3.15 percent raise effective March 2. 2006.þþCompounded, the raises total 17.1 percent, but the union said that when increases to annuities, the uniform allowance and other benefits are included, overall compensation would increase by 17.5 percent. þþThe first two years of the contract are modeled after the police officers' arbitration ruling, which provided for a raise of 10.25 percent, compounded, over two years with significant concessions to help finance the raise. Like the police contract, the sanitation deal calls for reducing the pay level of new employees in their first two years substantially below the regular pay level of sanitation workers. Those savings are also helping to finance raises.þþUnder the old contract, workers started at $30,000, but under yesterday's deal they will start at an annual rate of $26,000, climb to a $29,000 annualized salary after six months and then reach the maximum of $57,392 five and a half years after being hired. The sanitation workers' starting pay will be higher than the $25,100 rate for police officers.þþAs with the tentative teachers' contract, the sanitation accord calls for a raise of slightly more than 3 percent in the last year. Randi Weingarten, president of the teachers' union, said yesterday that her union's deal sought to establish a pattern on which to base future contracts: a raise of at least 3 percent for the first year in the next round of municipal negotiations.þþThe sanitation workers, the teachers and many other municipal unions have struggled in their negotiations to come up with productivity measures that would give them higher raises than those in the contract that set the municipal pattern, the District Council 37 contract that calls for a total of 5 percent in raises over three years.þþThe proposed contract calls for each trash truck to collect 10.7 tons per shift, up from 10.6, and for each recycling truck to collect 6.2 tons per shift, up from 6.1 tons.þþThe agreement also calls for the city to use members of the sanitation union to staff a new Staten Island transfer station.þþ
Source: NY Times
