More than
we bargained for
In 50 years of service, George O’Brien wrote the book on collective bargaining
for the PBA and dedicated himself to making life better for every member
■ BY MITCHELL KRUGEL
■ PHOTOS BY ED CARATTINI JR.
Digits, data points and documentation seem to flick-
er through the omnipresent glasses that accentuate George
O’Brien’s persona as a walking, talking, breathing, boundless
reservoir of facts, figures, evidence and wisdom. Look closely
and you can almost see the megabytes of collective bargaining
agreements, interest arbitration decisions, grievance arbitra-
tions, salary step tables, health benefits comparisons, town-by-
town demographics, municipal budget comparisons and cases
solved by the Clifton Detective Bureau in the 1970s scrolling
down George’s lenses.
The idiom “knowledge is power” never had as much power as
the information George O’Brien has wielded during a 26-year
law enforcement career with Clifton Local 36 followed by 24
years at the NJ State PBA’s Collective Bargaining Coordinator.
The idiom that George “wrote the book” on collective bargain-
ing would be correct when referencing that 1,100-page book
that members who attended the annual PBA Collective Bar-
gaining Seminar received, including in digital format the past
two years.
Of course, George’s legend can be found in the renowned
spreadsheets that detail every aspect of every law enforcement
agency’s contract – no matter which union was the collective
bargaining agent – going back to the 1980s, when George be-
came chair of the PBA Collective Bargaining Committee and
collective bargaining was still known as “collective begging.”
The collective greatness of George O’Brien can’t even be fully
measured by those spreadsheets. He is a pioneer, innovator,
CONTINUED ON PAGE 34
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■ JULY 2018 33