The UFOA held a negotiating session yesterday with the Office of Labor Relations. We did not reach a final settlement but we did move closer to an agreement. Although we are disappointed that we did not settle the contract, we are encouraged by the progress of negotiations we made yesterday.

Although we were prepared to ratchet up our protest regarding members working off line OT, we will hold off any further action and we issue the following directive to all members. We ask and expect your complete compliance:

All Chief and Company Officers may work any OT for training or other administrative purposes with the following restrictions:

All, and I mean all overtime performed shall be paid time and a half cash payment for Company Officers and time and a half comp. time for Chief Officers. ABSOLUTELY NO EXCEPTIONS to these rules. There should be no self mutuals, no comp. time earned for Co. Officers whether straight time or time and a half and no use of the codes for time owed member or time earned .

For those members working the chart you are free to work off line OT as I just explained. You may also be detailed to training on your regularly scheduled day tour. If you are, be sure to enter the appropriate portal to portal codes. NEVER, EVER agree to change your regular assigned tour to accommodate the needs of the Dept. And please, NO EXCEPTIONS to this request.

For those members who are working off the line, you are free to work additional OT, again with the restrictions I just mentioned.

Let me briefly explain our position. There is a value to us at the collective bargaining table to allow the Dept. to reschedule your regular scheduled tour to accommodate the needs of the Dept. In many cases some members are doing that now. This must stop immediately. The PBA got a credit of .61% by allowing the PD to reschedule a police officer's tour 5 times a year. Self mutuals are self destructive.

Simply put, we are trying to protect you, the membership and retain hard earned benefits that we worked so hard to attain.

We also want to remind all members that there is only one accepted work chart for the FDNY: the 2 platoon, 25 group chart. The only exception to our chart is an off line detail. No member of this union should be working any variation of our two platoon chart.

Let me remind all of you what we are up against in this horrific round of attrition bargaining. We are faced with the following possibilities.

1. Drastically reducing the salaries of new Lt.'s by $50,000, with 5 years to reach top pay.
2. Drastically reducing the pay for our incumbent members promoted to Capt, BC, and DC.
3. Loss of vacation days.
4. Loss of wash up and administrative time.
5. Extension of our contract to create value.

I want to thank the membership for your continued support. Please be prepared to follow your union's instructions as we proceed with negotiations. If talks break down, we will be asking members to refuse all off line overtime. To be very clear to the membership, if we need to take this step we would expect 100% compliance on this and any other “legal” action we have at our disposal. Remember our motto: