PBA Arbitration Starts April 27; EMS Union Begins Bid for Parity

Arbitration dates have been rescheduled for the Police Benevolent Association, with the union’s case for a pattern-busting pay raise to begin April 27, while the union representing Emergency Medical Technicians who are hoping to make a big leap to uniformed-union parity began its contract talks March 18.

The PBA arbitration was sidetracked when the chairman of the three-person panel, John M. Donoghue, was forced to withdraw due to illness shortly before arguments were due to begin Jan. 27. The two sides quickly agreed on veteran arbiter and mediator Martin F. Scheinman—whose vast experience in public-employee-union labor disputes includes extensive work in cases involving the Nassau and Suffolk county police unions—as his replacement.