The Post-Standard (Syracuse, New York), June 15, 2005, Wednesday

Copyright 2005 Post-Standard
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The Post-Standard (Syracuse, New York)

June 15, 2005 Wednesday
OSWEGO EDITION

SECTION: LOCAL; Pg. B1

HEADLINE: CITY, POLICE UNION AGREE TO ARBITRATION;
OSWEGO POLICE HAVE BEEN WITHOUT A CONTRACT SINCE 2002, CHIEF SAYS.

BYLINE: By Charles McChesney Staff writer

BODY:
Unable to reach a contract agreement, Oswego officials and the city's police union have agreed to take the matter to binding arbitration.
"Both the city and union agreed to arbitration," said union President Michael Brown, an officer in the department.
The move comes after years of negotiations and an attempt at mediation. Oswego police have not had a contract since 2002, according to Chief Alex Zukovsky.
The parties have agreed to designate Douglas Bantle as the public member of the arbitration panel. Bantle's appointment needs to be approved by the state Public Employment Relations Board.
Elayne G. Gold, an Albany lawyer who serves as Oswego's chief negotiator with its unions, said she, union lawyer Rocco A. DePerno, of Sylvan Beach, and Bantle will make up the arbitration panel and hear from both sides regarding issues on which negotiations are deadlocked.
Brown declined to say what those issues are. "I wish I could," he said, "but we're not allowed to discuss items once it goes to arbitration."
After hearing from both sides, the panel can impose an agreement that can last as long as two years, Gold said.
Bantle cautioned that going to arbitration does not necessarily mean a quick resolution of the long-standing dispute. He said he is usually scheduled six months in advance. He added that the length of the arbitration can depend on the number of open issues arbitrators are asked to settle. "It doesn't move really quickly," he said.
Gold, who said she has served on perhaps a dozen arbitration panels, said she expects the group will meet in late summer or early fall. While the hearing may last only a day, she said both sides often choose to submit written summaries. That can take weeks and requires another meeting at which both sides can be questioned about what they wrote.
Three or four main issues will be on the table.
Arbitration is a last-resort procedure available to unions for police and firefighters in New York state. "The state didn't want them to strike," said Gold.
Bantle, a Rochester-area lawyer who studied labor relations at Cornell University, said that while two-thirds of the panel is made of representatives from the opposing sides, the goal is for the three to reach consensus.
"It's a comfortable and reasoned process that takes some time," he said.