City Hall is closing deals.

Since February, the Adams administration has announced four tentative contract deals — representing 75% of the city’s workforce.

“This administration will always stand up for working people and those who serve this city,” said Mayor Eric Adams Thursday.


What You Need To Know

  • As of Thursday Mayor Eric Adams has made at least four major labor deals

  • The contracts are turning into a highlight for the Adams administration that brands itself as a champion of everyday New Yorkers

  • The agreements cover 75% of the city’s workforce

The contracts include deals with District Council 37, the United Federation of Teachers and, most recently, the Uniformed Officer Coalition.

But probably the most significant agreement was made in April with the Police Benevolent Association, which has struggled to broker deals with City Hall in the past.

“You really put down your swords, you picked up your pens, and you started having a discussion that meant something real,” Pat Lynch, president of the PBA, said in April when the deal was first announced.

One significant detail of these agreements is that they all run through 2025, the year of the next mayoral election.

The length would free up the mayor to focus on his re-election campaign without having to be in the midst of negotiations, especially when union support is crucial to any election.

“That length of time is longish by historical standards but helpful in terms of predictability on the budget and length of time to work together to do it well,” said Citizens Budget Commissioner President Andrew Rein.

The deals are also in line with his political brand of being a champion of “everyday New Yorkers.”

“In February we had 96% of our contracts that were expired going back years, and unable to come to the table, unable to come to a clear agreement. But I’m pretty sure many of the presidents of the unions stated to themselves, we have a blue collar mayor coming in so we’re going to get a blue collar agreement,” Adams said Thursday.

The deals more or less follow similar patterns and include wage increases starting ranging from 2.25% for the first year of the contract and going up as high as 4% for the last year of the deal.

Most of the contracts also include some form of flexible work options. The pilot programs are a first, as workers have embraced remote work in the years since the pandemic.

They also include recruitment and retention bonuses as the city workforce has struggled to fill vacancies and compete with more remote-friendly employers.

But some analysts worry about the deal’s implications for the city’s finances.

“All these contracts citywide when you add them all together over five years is over $24 billion. Yes, they are built into the spending budget, but they’re actually not in the revenue budget. We actually don’t have the money to pay for all this over time,” said Rein.

Rein noted that with the contracts in place, the mayor would have to continue to look for savings and efficiencies in his administration.