U.S. Rep. Chaka Fattah says he would work to raise police wages if elected mayor. The way to get that done, he says, is through negotiating a police contract, rather than using salary arbitration.
“We need to do something in terms of providing more wages. ...That will be part of what I’m interested in the upcoming contract negotiations. Usually they use arbitration but I want to see if we can negotiate the contract for once. …We need a well-motivated force and we need it to be well compensated.”
Fattah’s first step, though, would be smoothing his relationship with the Fraternal Order of Police. The FOP has made it clear that they are not fans of the congressman for his views in support of convicted cop killer/death row cause celebre Mumia Abu-Jamal.
FOP boss Bobby Eddis said last year that they would work against Fattah and lobby local labor unions to not support Fattah.
"We know who we’re not going to endorse…That would be Chaka Fattah because he’s
pushed for the retrial of Mumia," Eddis told Metro's Brian X. McCrone in November. "And we’re going to be asking our fellow labor organizations to support us [in this initiative]."
UPDATE: Fattah said this afternoon that his campaign has since met with the FOP and would work to get them to the table to discuss a contract, rather than using a third-party arbitrator.
"The FOP has endorsed me in almost every election I’ve run in. We have one disagreement about one matter. Adults are going to have disagreements. ...There's one thing we don't agree on. There's 99 other things we do agree on."
Comments