Unions, City Reach Two-Year Deal; Purported $200M Savings

​The city's public employees unions and Mayor's Office have just announced a tentative, two-year agreement building upon last month's accord over a dozen furlough days a year.

The deal, which will save the city a purported $200 million, was summarized via five bullet points:

• The aforementioned dozen furlough days;

• Attempts to trim $30 million off of the expenditures toward "contracting out" jobs to non-union, non-city employees;

• A streamlining of the city's procurement procedures, eliminating wasteful duplications and, possibly, consolidating to better use the city's bargaining power;

• A minimum of two week's notice for employees displaced by layoff;

• Closure of "non-essential" services between Christmas and New Year's.

When asked what "non-essential" services might be, Engineers' Local 21 spokeswoman Anjali Asrani said that the city is still compiling that list. But "essential" basically means "interacts with the public." You will likely be able to apply for your marriage license on Dec. 27, then. But the engineer  behind closed doors designing a building may find his or her office closed and him or herself on mandated time off.

Every member of the Public Employee Committee -- a consortium of more than 20 city unions -- gave the nod for this agreement, which will supposedly save more than 1,000 city jobs.

Each union's membership will likely begin voting for ratification by next week, and could be completed by the first week of May.