NYPD sergeants OK 5-year deal by large margin

The president of the Sergeants Benevolent Association, Vincent Vallelong, shook hands with Mayor Eric Adams at City Hall in June 2023 following the announcement of a tentative five-year contract agreement with a coalition of 11 uniformed unions. The SBA’s rank and file has just OK’d a 5-year deal contingent on that agreement, concluding occasionally acrimonious unit bargaining.

ED REED/MAYORAL PHOTOGRAPHY OFFICE

MAY 6, 2025
BY RICHARD KHAVKINE

NYPD sergeants have overwhelmingly approved a 5-year contract, concluding a drawn-out effort by city and union officials to secure a deal for the roughly 4,400 cops in the supervisory title.

The retroactive agreement will net sergeants who were in the rank December 2021 and who work through Dec. 9 a compounded raise of nearly 19 percent. It was approved by a margin of more than nine to one, according to the Sergeants Benevolent Association.

Of the 4,386 sergeants eligible to vote, 3,719 cast ballots in favor of the deal, 227 cast no votes and 20 turned in blank ballots. That amounts to an astounding 85 percent turnout, significantly more than typically turn out for ratification votes.

“This is a historic win for our union — and it wouldn’t have happened without your unyielding solidarity and continued support,” the SBA’s president, Vincent Vallelong, wrote members Monday.

Although the SBA was among 11 uniformed unions that agreedon the economics of a tentative agreement in June 2023 that included compounded 17.77-percent raises, matching the pattern negotiated by the city and the Police Benevolent Association a few weeks earlier, unit bargaining — negotiations on matters pertaining to just the SBA — had stalled since then.

The two sides were close to an agreement earlier this year, but the deal fell apart when, according to the union, city officials called for the inclusion of a pilot program that would have some sergeants on 12-hour tours in exchange for extra days off.

Vallelong and his board said the city’s late inclusion of that clause sabotaged the deal. The union leader said the proposal to have his members work the longer shifts would risk further burnout and also risk their health and safety given that sergeants are already overburdened as the department contends with a declining number of cops.

“We didn’t get here by luck. We got here because we stuck together and refused to back down. You showed up at rallies. You spoke out. You stood with us through every step of this fight,” Vallelong wrote the sergeants. “While all of us would have preferred to have had a deal in place a long time ago, the deal that was offered at that time did not reflect your daily sacrifices and essential service to our city. This new deal does.”

Union and city officials did reach a separate agreement on a strictly voluntary pilot involving 50 sergeants signing up for 12-hour tours. The pilot program is similar to that involving about 3,000 officers rolled out in May 2023 following the PBA’s ratification of their contract. It calls for some sergeants to work either three successive 12-hour tours followed by three days off; three 12-hour tours followed by four days off; or four 12-hour tours followed by three days off.

The contract also ensures that all of the department’s sergeants will be earning more than the officers they supervise, a provision Vallelong said “has always been our top priority.” And it calls for sergeants who earned below top pay as of Dec. 10 to be bumped to the maximum salary of $134,819. The deal will also rectify a pay disparity that had about 1,200 sergeants with years in the supervisory title earning less than those newly promoted into the rank.

Vallelong told his members that raises and retroactive payments should be incorporated into sergeants’ biweekly paychecks within three months. He noted that about 1,050 retired union members will get a retroactive payment.

He said the union “gave up next to nothing” to secure the contract.

“Just a minor adjustment to wash-up time. That’s it. No givebacks. No gimmicks,” Vallelong said. “And long overdue.”