Enter Michael Nutter, who has enjoyed smooth sailing in the opening months of his first term. His $4 billion budget and five-year financial plan were approved by City Council last month.
Now, Nutter faces expiring contracts on June 30 with the blue-collar District Council 33, the white collar District Council 47, Local 22 of the International Association of Fire Fighters and Lodge 5 of the Fraternal Order of Police.
Nutter set a tone both open and stern in his Feb. 14 city-budget address, calling the contracts "our most pressing challenge."
With 22,000 employees, the unions consume 60 cents out of every city tax dollar. A massive chunk of that is spent on the four union health-care funds.
Nutter took a different approach to the contracts from previous mayors, announcing in the address that the city has $400 million set aside in the five-year plan to fund increases for the unions in wages and benefits.
But there are many uncertainties. Contracts for two of the unions, the police and firefighters, are usually decided by an arbitration panel so the city won't know the exact cost of those contracts until that process ends, perhaps months after their contracts expire.
Nutter on Friday repeatedly said he has pledged to the unions to not negotiate in public. But the $400 million was clearly meant to send a potent message.
"Hopefully the public employees and certainly their leaders took that as a sign that we're serious, that we're not trying to play games and hide money and all that kind of stuff," Nutter said.
City Councilman Bill Green, chairman of the Committee on Labor and Civil Service, said Nutter was trying to be transparent.
"I hope that approach is successful," Green said. "I think most of the union officials that I've talked to view it as sort of the city's opening bid rather than its final and best offer."
