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Police Union, City Reach Tentative Labor Deal

By JENNA CARLESSO

April 06, 2012

HARTFORD —— The Hartford Police Union has reached a tentative agreement with the city on a new labor contract, Mayor Pedro Segarra said Friday.

The deal was reached late Thursday afternoon, Segarra said. He declined to talk about specifics.

"I can't release the details at this point; I have to discuss it with council leadership and the union has to discuss it with their membership," Segarra said. "We agreed to some of the basics of it, but there's some smaller details we need to still work out."

The police union and the city council must approve the contract. Segarra said the council would probably hold a special meeting or take up the matter at a regularly scheduled meeting in a few weeks.

The 456-member union has been working under its old contract, which expired in June 2010. City officials said negotiations had been underway for months, but had gotten close to an agreement only recently.

"It's a relief so far," Richard Holton, president of the police union, said Friday. "It's a three-step process and this is only the first step. We need union approval and council approval, so we still have a long road ahead of us."

Holton said the union would hold an informational meeting next week on the matter and vote on it after that.

The police union endorsed Segarra for the November election.

Asked about negotiations last month, Segarra's spokeswoman, Andrea Comer, said the mayor "has sought to develop agreements that are aligned with the recommendations of the budget fiscal analysis task force."

David Panagore, the city's chief operating officer, said in March that the city would seek givebacks from the unions as part of an effort to close a $56.2 million deficit in the 2012-13 budget.