Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg achieved broad labor savings when he persuaded the city's biggest municipal union, District Council 37, to agree to lower starting salaries and benefits for newly hired workers and to find additional workplace savings in the future. District Council 37 has historically set the pattern for other city unions and it has been suggested that the deal struck with them will become a model for the agreements negotiated with the city's other unions, including the teachers, firefighters and police. Some labor leaders feel that forcing lower salaries is a bad idea because the city is already having a hard time recruiting enough teachers and police officers due to higher pay levels in the suburbs.
See "Mayor Gets Labor-Pact Savings That Eluded His Predecessors", Steven Greenhouse, The New York Times, April 21, 2004