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by WILLIAM MURPHY
Now the battle for new union contracts is personal.
Unions representing firefighters and police officers are singling out Mayor Michael Bloomberg and plan surprise protests at his public appearances.
The mayor is hitting hard at the theme that the union leaders worry more about their own re-election than the welfare of their members.
By singling out the mayor, the unions might give an emotional boost to angry police and firefighters, but the tactic also poses the risk of ugly confrontations.
The unions representing the uniformed workers said Friday that they would begin such unannounced "pop-up" protests against the mayor, but they gave no details.
Even before the tactic was announced, firefighters went to the Bronx last Monday night, without notice, to protest at a Town Hall meeting that Bloomberg attended.
Bloomberg walked across the street and tried to engage the firefighters in a discussion, but they were not in a listening mood, and Bloomberg finally walked away.
"It was a pretty uncomfortable situation," Edward Brown, Bronx trustee of the Uniformed Firefighters Association, said later.
On his weekly radio show Friday, Bloomberg drew a distinction between "union representatives and people who are out there protecting us."
"They love their jobs and are dedicating themselves to helping [the city], he said. "They're not going to have a blue flu as the convention approaches," he said, referring to report that police would call in sick during the Republican National Convention, which begins Aug. 30.
There will be "a lot of overtime for cops, but also cops understand their duty. They didn't take this job to get rich. They took it because they want to make a difference," Bloomberg said.
The comments about the motives of the union leaders angered Edward Brown, the Bronx trustee of the Uniformed Firefighters Association, who shouted at Bloomberg on Monday night.
"You want me to talk or you want to talk?" the mayor asked the firefighters, according to a broadcast on WNBC-TV that night.
"You came across the street to fast-talk us," Brown shot back.
Bloomberg said he was trying hard to get them a raise and criticized the union for not backing his tax increase, some of which goes toward municipal salaries.
"I'm trying as hard as I can to work - I work for a dollar a year," Bloomberg said. His voice on the tape was drowned out by the firefighters, and Brown was heard to say seconds later about the $1-a-year comment: "I wish I could do the same."
In an interview the next day, Brown said he was particularly angry with the mayor for saying the union leadership is holding up talks because they want to get re-elected.
"I'm telling him to be reasonable. He's telling the people that union leaders are behind this dispute. I'm a firefighter in the Bronx for 22 years. I was elected by my peers two months ago," Brown said.
The union backed up Brown on Friday, saying he and the other firefighters at the protest "did a fantastic job."
"Mayor Bloomberg left the Bronx a defeated man," the union said in a message to his members, but the mayor did not sound defeated when he spoke on his radio program Friday. He sounded more like he was counterattacking.
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