The Detroit News, August 25, 2009, Tuesday

Copyright 2009 The Detroit News
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The Detroit News (Michigan)

August 25, 2009, Tuesday

HEADLINE: Changes to benefits a bitter pill

BYLINE: Laura Berman The Detroit News

BODY:
Like a candy bar maker marketing pricey chocolate into a new "fun" size, Mayor Dave Bing has to sell the not-so-sweet idea of a downsized city.

He's got to convince city employees that the glory days of Detroit are long gone.

Outsiders need only look at the empty skyscrapers downtown or the open, grassy fields beyond to recognize a shrinking city that needs to make dramatic changes. The city's land mass remains huge - large enough to contain Man-hattan, San Francisco and Boston.

Big city, small fortunes

But even at a dwindling 850,000 people, Detroit's still a big city, with expectations that haven't contracted as quickly as the city's fortunes.

Union contracts still harken back to the days when Detroit muscle cars symbolized the city's economic machismo and the area's rising hopes were as American as General Motors stock.

Al Garrett, AFSCME Council 25 president with a dwindling 3,800 workers, points out that some of the now-reviled benefits predate the city's unions and questions Bing's demand to cut 1,000 workers. "These are draconian cuts," he says.

Edward Cardenas, the mayor's press secretary, says the city wants a 10 percent cut in pay for union employees, but won't discuss other negotiations. Bing set a Friday deadline for all 50 bargaining units to reach a tentative agreement.

The benefits, as detailed Monday in The Detroit News, once defined middle-class expectations: Unions flexed their own muscle by devising benefits that improved their members' lifestyles.

'Cadillac' of benefits

In context, the provisions made sense, allowing the city to compete against the growing auto companies and related industries.

"You don't get stock in a company in the public sector or participate in a boom," says Richard W. Hurd, professor of labor relations at Cornell University. "That's always been a trade-off, so public sector unions have always been more adamant about holding on to benefits."

Gone are the days when union leaders boasted about getting members "the Cadillac" of health care benefits. Even Cadillac is struggling.

But for city workers, there is still some treasure left. From the stockpile of sick days (17 that can be collected, rolled over, used for personal days, traded for pension dollars) to the bonus days (five) awarded for perfect attendance and an array of holidays.

At retirement, city workers can cash in sick days for 60 percent of their cash value.

Garrett points out that the city offers no short- or long-term disability to its workers, and sick days compensate.

Whether you think such benefits prescient or crazy no longer matters: In a state without jobs, cities best many pri-vate employers. Unions can't pioneer coverage or benefits when tax collections are crashing and budgets aren't balanced. Cutbacks, including prescriptions for some drugs, are being demanded faster than you can say "Viva Viagra."

"I don't take it," says Garrett, about another perk Bing wants unions to drop. "But we've asked to see figures about how much it costs the city."

The loss of Viagra is potentially one more symbol of the city's, and the unions', slow grope to keep up with decline.

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