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by BRIAN BOYD
City workers seeking to pressure the mayor on contract negotiations began a planned days-long protest yesterday by picketing outside Madison Square Garden.
About 90 police officers, firefighters, emergency medical technicians and teachers demonstrated outside the site of the upcoming Republican National Convention. They accused the mayor of not negotiating in good faith and argued that the unions are expected to make too many concessions for too little money. They have been working for as long as two years without contracts.
"They won't even listen to us," said Firefighter Glenn Cloherty, 33, of Engine Co. 28 in the Lower East Side. "They won't even come to the bargaining table."
In response, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said the picketing was "just wasting everybody's time," and he laid blame for the stalemate with union officials.
"The first thing you have to have is responsible labor leaders who want to come to the table and try to find a way for us to generate the cash that we don't have to pay our municipal work force," Bloomberg said at a news conference in the Bronx.
Police officers said Bloomberg is asking them to do more without giving them appropriate compensation.
"We don't mind doing the work if they're willing to pay us," said Scott Williamson, 42, a police officer and trustee with the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association.
Union members yesterday tried, unsuccessfully, to discourage delivery truck drivers from bringing supplies into the building by lining the sidewalks of West 31st and 33rd streets. The demonstrators also set up an inflatable rat, a prop the city's unions often use in protests.
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