By ROBERT LINNEHAN | The Cherry Hill Sun
Six junior police officers were laid off today after the Cherry Hill Policemen’s Benevolent Association Local 176 turned down the latest contract offer from the Cherry Hill Township. The township had given the local union a deadline of 10:30 a.m. to accept the offer, or the layoffs would be made.
The PBA is also negotiating on behalf of the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 28. The junior officers had joined the Cherry Hill police force in 2008.
The township offered contracts to the officers that closely mirrored the deal brokered with the Cherry Hill Superior Officers Association, Chief of Staff Dan Keashen said. The contract offer had the officers contributing to their health-care benefits and nominal pay increases after a pay freeze for some time.
Originally, when the negotiation process began, Keashen said the PBA put an offer on the table that would give officers a 4.5 percent yearly increase in salaries. The organization has since made two other offers that brought the yearly increases down, he said, but still not to a level that the township can afford.
“From our point, the mayor and administration believed we put a fair deal out there considering the economic circumstances and current fiscal crisis throughout the state,” he said. “Mayor Platt has a tremendous amount of respect for our law enforcement and the job they do on the daily basis. With that said, at the end of the day, the township has to have the ability to pay out the contract.
