Gilroy – City Hall will begin labor talks with the police union just as a year-long contract battle with firefighters comes to an end.
City officials met this week with police management, who are not part of the 57-member Gilroy Police Officers Association, to strategize for the upcoming talks. The POA’s five-year contract expires at the end of June, but will remain in effect until a new contract is negotiated.
“Our process has started and our first meeting with the POA is later this month,” said LeeAnn McPhillips, the city’s human resources director and point-person on all of the city’s labor negotiations.
She declined to specify any priorities for the talks that start April 26, but officials have said over the last year that a top priority with all three of Gilroy’s labor unions is capping city contributions toward spiraling health benefits. Last year, the union representing the vast majority of the city’s 270 employees agreed to such a cap. City officials in the last year also expressed concern about the increasing cost of retirement benefits.
During the last contract negotiation in 2001, the POA received the 3 at 50 retirement benefit, which allows union members to retire as early as age 50 with 90 percent of their pay. The program pays 3 percent for every year of work.
In recent months, city negotiators argued against granting fire union members the same retirement benefit by calling the decision to give police 3 at 50 “a mistake,” made during more robust economic times.
The city’s refusal to extend the same benefit package to firefighters has proven a sticking point in the arbitration process.
It’s unclear if the city will try to use the upcoming negotiation to prevent new officers from receiving 3 at 50.
Gilroy police detective Frank Bozzo, the POA’s chief negotiator, said “it is too early to comment on the upcoming negotiations since neither side has disclosed their requests.
As for the last round of negotiations, Bozzo said “there were bumps in the road here and there but overall it went pretty smoothly.”
A decision on the fire union’s requests is expected in June.
