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PBA: Hello, We Must Be Going to Arbitration With City on New Pact

By RICHARD STEIER
Posted 8/21/17

Just two weeks after its contract expired, the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association Aug. 15 filed for arbitration with the state Public Employment Relations Board, with union President Patrick J. Lynch saying that based on recent dealings with the de Blasio administration, he was convinced management’s strategy was “to stall negotiations until such time that the city is able to enter into an agreement with another union, the terms of which it will then seek to impose on the PBA.”

The move was surprising on a couple of counts. One was that, as Mr. Lynch revealed in a message to union members that was obtained by this newspaper, the two sides had held two bargaining sessions prior to the expiration Aug. 1 of a five-year contract that had been reached in late January. The union’s tendency, even predating Mr. Lynch’s 18-year tenure as president, had been to bide its time about seeking successor deals, often letting another union or unions reach terms that it would then try to exceed.

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