Northwest Gilroy’s Sunrise Fire Station will only be open three
days in the next 1.5 months, according to the city.
Northwest Gilroy’s Sunrise Fire Station will only be open three days in the next 1.5 months, according to the city.
As a result of these scheduled “brownouts” at the station, City Council members have expressed interest in renegotiating with the firefighters union to temporarily decrease staffing ratios at Gilroy’s other two stations to help keep the Sunrise open. The council planned to vote on the matter during Monday evening’s council meeting.
“I think we just need to sit down and talk,” said Councilman Craig Gartman, who proposed the idea last week.
Sunrise Fire Station, 880 Sunrise Drive, began experiencing brownout days Nov. 1 as the result of an agreement between the city and the union. Sunrise had previously become a two-person unit at most times and occasionally a three-person station after the city laid off four firefighters and eliminated two vacant firefighter positions late last year. After that, the city and Local 2805 reached a “concession agreement” this spring in which they agreed on further personnel costs including furloughs. Cost-cutting measures within that agreement included occasional brownouts at the Sunrise station.
Union members have said in the past that they did not approve of the brownouts – they merely recognized that the city had the right to close the station at times in accordance with prior city agreements.
But most council members said this week that it was the union that has not budged on negotiating the staffing ratios, which they say has caused the brownouts. The Council has been open to changing those ratios.
Union officials have maintained that four firefighters per engine is a safety issue, while city officials say that Gilroy and San Jose are the only cities in the county that use that ratio.
“We’re a small town,” Councilwoman Cat Tucker said. “We can’t afford to have four (firefighters) on an engine.”
Jim Buessing, secretary and treasurer of Local 2805, noted that the union is already in a closed contract with the city and already has made concessions including layoffs.
“Only this local is being asked for more concessions,” Buessing said.
He said he could not comment further on the matter without actually seeing a proposal.
Council members said the union has tried to use the situation to drum up sympathy for their cause, distributing fliers that said the station is shutting down and that listed the union’s Web site.
“They’re playing politics with this,” Councilman Perry Woodward said.
Councilwoman Cat Tucker described the fliers as “misleading.”
Two things that council members and union representatives appear to agree on is that the Sunrise Station closures are bad and that when it comes to negotiating a contract, the ball is in the union’s court.
Gartman said he talked to Buessing last week, and the union’s secretary and treasurer said he was willing to talk to the city. But before the union decides makes any decisions, representatives say they need to see something in writing.
“I need to see a proposal,” Buessing said.
Check back Tuesday morning to see how the Council voted.
