Pittsburgh police officers threaten Winter Classic boycott in pay dispute

You might want to file this one away as something to keep in mind as the 2011 Winter Classic in Pittsburgh approaches. Pittsburgh police officers are caught up in a dispute with the the City of Pittsburgh and are threatening to boycott the Winter Classic unless they are given holiday pay for working the game. WTAE-TV in Pittsburgh has the details.

Channel 4 Action News acquired an e-mail from Sgt. John Fisher that was sent to all of the police officers scheduled to work the game. Because the game is being played on New Year’s Day, those officers expected to get holiday pay, but Fisher’s e-mail said that they won’t.

The e-mail states that “It is our position that we will not supply officers unless we receive the holiday pay rate.”

Fisher is in charge of arranging the police detail for every Steelers game, Channel 4 Action News reported. In the e-mail, Fisher asked officers to refuse to work at a reduced pay rate.

Like we said, file this away under possible other story lines as the Winter Classic approaches. New Year’s Day is generally regarded as a holiday for most places and it seems strange that in this instance it’s not being viewed as such. We’re sure that the City of Pittsburgh wouldn’t like to have some sort of cloud hanging over the game and they certainly don’t want to be lacking a security presence at the game considering Heinz Field will be packed to the brim with both Penguins and Capitals fans. The story bears watching as time ticks down until the Winter Classic.