De Blasio reaches tentative agreement with eight city labor unions

Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Tuesday night that his administration has reached tentative labor agreements with eight unions representing high-ranking officials of the city's police, fire, sanitation and correction departments.

About 12,000 city employees would benefit from the proposed seven-year deal, which has a net cost of $413.7 million. They would receive an 11-percent wage increase over the seven years. The agreements must still be ratified by members of each union.

The groups with the Uniformed Superior Officers Coalition are the Detectives' Endowment Association, the Uniformed Fire Officers Association, the Lieutenants Benevolent Association, the Sanitation Officers Association, the Correction Captains' Association, the Captains Endowment Association, the Assistant Deputy Wardens/Deputy Wardens Association and the Uniformed Sanitation Chiefs Associations.

"It is difficult, it is complex, it is dangerous, it is sensitive," de Blasio said Tuesday night at a City Hall news conference of the jobs that the workers do. "These are the leaders in agencies we depend on every day."

Unlike the United Federation of Teachers, which in April was the first major union to reach an agreement with the city, the eight groups would receive an extra 1 percent hike in the first year. They must make health care concessions.

The new contracts would begin retroactively between March 2011 and July 2012.

The rank-and-file police union, the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association, and the Sergeants Benevolent Association are still working under expired contracts.

Roy T. Richter, president of the Captains Endowment Association, said Tuesday night that the target date for ratification is Feb. 1.

De Blasio began his term in office Jan. 1 with every contract in the city expired. His administration will have settled 71 percent of contracts for the city workforce if the pacts are ratified.