Union Members

Baltimore police officers got what they described as a stunning note accompanying their biweekly paychecks Friday — a memo from City Hall informing them that their pay will be cut by nearly 2 percent over the next six months. That means the average officer will see about $205 less in monthly pay starting Jan. 21. "Baltimore City will never be safe as long as the mayor continues to show her disrespect to the police," said Robert F. Cherry, president of the Fraternal Order of Police.

Small-business owners and labor leaders packed the auditorium at Dunbar High School on Thursday to debate a bill that would require local officials to give hiring preference to union employees on city contracts. The Community Partnership Agreements Bill would encourage unions to train and recruit city residents while prohibiting strikes, said Councilman Bill Henry. Henry sponsored the bill on behalf of the Get Baltimore Working campaign, a project of the local chapter of the Laborers' International Union.

Holding signs that said "City Hall Has Turned Their Backs on Police and Firefighters," about two dozen police and firefighters union members protested the City Council's passage of a pension bill that took effect Thursday. The union members wore shirts saying, "We Protect You. Help Protect Us," and yelled as local city and business leaders entered a fundraising event for Councilman Bill Cole at Luckie's Tavern on Market Place downtown. The new pension bill drastically alters the police and firefighter pension plan.

A bill that would drastically alter the police and firefighter pension plan — and, officials say, avert a financial disaster for the city — won unanimous backing from a City Council committee Thursday, despite protests from union members. The legislation, which consultants hired by the city say could save $400 million over five years, would delay the age at which employees could retire, increase their contributions and replace a benefit that varies with the market with a modest annual cost-of-living increase for retirees over 55. Union members called the marathon hearing of the taxation and finance committee "a sham," and accused city officials of reneging on their promises to public safety officers.

Shouting "Save our jobs" and "Save our kids," more than 500 residents, youth advocates and union members streamed into a meeting Wednesday evening to call for Baltimore's top officials to reverse deep cuts to parks and recreation and preserve the jobs of city workers. The impassioned crowd pleaded with leaders to halt plans to close more than half the city's rec centers and swimming and wading pools, and to fully fund the Recreation and Parks Department, which would be eviscerated in a preliminary budget proposed by Mayor Stephanie C. Rawlings-Blake's administration.

The police and sheriffs' unions in Baltimore County have agreed to a contract that will guarantee members their jobs for the next two years, but will eliminate cost-of-living adjustments and increase they amount they contribute to their pensions, County Executive James T. Smith Jr. said Tuesday. The firefighters' union and several others have reached similar agreements with the county subject to ratification by the rank and file, Smith said. "All the union leaders have signed off on the contracts and we are confident their members are in synch," said Baltimore County Executive James T. Smith Jr. Michael Day, president of the county firefighters' union local, said the agreement takes into account "the very difficult economic climate that exists in the nation and ensures that fire and EMS personnel will keep their jobs and that the people of Baltimore County will continue to be safe and secure, where they live, work and play."

A contentious bill which would give hiring preference to local union employees on city contracts is slated to be introduced at today's City Council meeting. The measure, which would encourage unions to train and recruit city residents while prohibiting strikes, is sponsored by Councilman Bill Henry at the request of the Get Baltimore Working campaign, a project of the local chapter of the Laborers' International Union. Henry yanked a similar measure two weeks ago after contractors complained that they already were hiring local residents - just not union members.

A majority of union members now work for the government, partly because layoffs in the recession plunged the private sector's union levels to a record low. Local, state and government workers make up 51.5 percent of all union members - becoming the majority of organized labor for the first time, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday. The shift shows the difficulty unions face in trying to revive a movement that has declined since its peak in the 1950s. And it undermines the traditional ability of unions to push private sector wages higher.

After months of negotiations, city officials and the Baltimore police union have hammered out a deal that would cut $5 million from the police budget while bringing long-sought changes to shift schedules. Under the new agreement, which must be ratified by union members, officers would no longer be forced to work six-day weeks and would gain an average of seven days of vacation, though they would not be paid for five of those days, making them de facto furlough time. The plan would control the number of officers who could take off on a given day, limiting the amount of overtime needed to fill vacant shifts.

Baltimore's 1,600 firefighters and fire officers voted overwhelmingly Wednesday night to take five unpaid furlough days before June in order to help the city close a $60 million budget gap. The city's agreement with the two unions also calls for a pay freeze in the next fiscal year, but union members will be spared threatened pay cuts. The deal is worth $2.9 million to the city. Bob Sledgeski, head of the 1,300-member Baltimore Firefighters' Local 734, said the agreement passed by a 2-to-1 vote.