Guild Threatens City After City Releases Contract Offer Details

The Seattle Police Officer's Guild has threatened the city of Seattle with even larger pickets than were originally planned and lawsuits over the city's move to bypass the guild and reveal the details of the contract the guild was turning down in stalled contract talks.

The city of Seattle stated that it has offered as much as it can, a 23.8% salary increase for experienced officers and a 33.9% increase for entry level officers. All this along with full protection of current benefit rates, additional hiring and equipment bonuses, and an additional 23 paid days off per year, raising the salary of experienced officers to nearly $90,000 per year, more than most experienced college graduate technology professionals in the area make.

The guild asserts that it is angry that the city didn't keep the details secret and said that they were close to making a "blockbuster deal", even though most sources close to the contract talks had said that the city and guild had stopped talking and the negotiations had completely stalled... and the fact that the guild has been preparing to picket for weeks, (since at least 02/08/08 per their own website), appears to contradict the guild's assertion that they were on the verge of a "blockbuster deal".

We assume that the guild is fuming over the public and it's members finding out just how much the guild was passing up in order to continue it's zealous fight against the city's efforts to implement police accountability and oversight reforms, as the guild has repeatedly mentioned accountability as a reason for it's opposition to the generous contract offer in it's furious reply to the city's move.

In fact... This appears to be the only reason the guild has decided to take such a hostile stance towards the city, because it can't be for the pay unless the guild is that far out of touch with the public, who generally only gets an average pay increase of 3.6% per year, and the city has offered FAR more than that.. An average of over $16,600 per year for each of it's members in fact!

Would you turn down an extra $16,600 per year in exchange for just having to do your job by the rules and follow the law?

On top of this, the president of the police officer's guild is threatening that the city's move has ruined the chances of the guild even considering the recommended police accountability reforms in their NEXT contract talks, slated for 2010!

We wonder, how far will the guild go to protect the abusive officers in it's midsts from being held accountable when they abuse the citizens of this city? So far, they've turned down generous pay raises, unheard of vacation time, have threatened the city with pickets and lawsuits, and have suffered public relation disaster after disaster, all on behalf of abusive cops?

What's next?