GILROY
– For 34 Gilroy firefighters, their union’s current contract
negotiations with the city couldn’t come at a worse time, as the
city is already scheduled to spend a record percentage of its
increasingly burdened General Fund money on police and fire
services next year.
GILROY – For 34 Gilroy firefighters, their union’s current contract negotiations with the city couldn’t come at a worse time, as the city is already scheduled to spend a record percentage of its increasingly burdened General Fund money on police and fire services next year.
Despite fears by the Association of Firefighters Local 2805 that the bad timing could handcuff their negotiation demands, its negotiators are confident a new contract between their union and the city can be in place by the July 1 deadline.
“We need to buckle down and look at the economy now so we have room to work together later, hopefully when the economy picks up,” said Jim Buessing, a negotiator with the Local 2805 who has been involved in firefighter contract negotiations with the city since March.
“All we are asking for is parity with the other unions in the city – police and miscellaneous – and if we have to settle for a 1 percent raise over the next two years and then a couple 9 percent raises later on, we’ll do that.”Due to a continued slumping economy and lack of projected tax revenue, mixed with the soaring costs of medical and retirement benefits, the city is already scheduled to spend 80 percent of its $34 million General Fund next year on police and fire services for the city – $18.7 million on police and $8.5 million on fire.
Last year the city budgeted $6.9 million for fire services, but the implementation of its new paramedic program, staffing for the new Sunrise Fire Station set to open in July and mounting benefit costs have stretched the budget demand.
“This is a tough discussion to have right now because we have to look at different tiers of cuts,” City Administrator Jay Baksa said. “Eventually the cuts will get to benefits and personnel, but you hope not to go that far.”
According to Buessing, his union’s demands for Gilroy’s first new firefighter contract since 1999 will be threefold: salary, retirement and medical benefits for retirees that are in line with the package Gilroy police officers receive.
In 1999, the issue of adding an additional fourth firefighter to Gilroy engine companies sparked a two-year debate between Local 2805 and the city that eventually required the help of a private arbitrator to settle. Local 2805 was finally given approval for the extra firefighter.
Since then, both the Gilroy Police Department’s union and union representing non-administrative city employees – known as miscellaneous employees – have negotiated new contracts with the city.
The GPD’s new contract which was effective July 1, 2001, guarantees its officers a 26 percent raise in increments over a period of five years. Now, the firefighters want a similar type of raise, according to Buessing. Gilroy firefighters have received a 22 percent salary increase during their current four-year contract expiring at the end of June.
Currently, the base salary for a Firefighter with the GFD is $73,841. The base salary for a GPD officer is $70,893, but because GFD firefighters maintain 56-hour work weeks compared with 40 hour weeks of police officers, the GPD officers earn an average of about $5 more an hour than Gilroy firefighters, Buessing said. The average GFD firefighter will receive $9,700 in overtime pay this year, according to GFD records.
Buessing said his union also uses the contracts of other fire unions in the county to set the standards for negotiation, but due to cost of living disparities and the varying state of local city budgets, the Local 2805 has decided to focus on the GPD’s contract.
“Certainly the budget plays a role in these types of negotiations,” said LeeAnn McPhillips, the city’s human resources director who is involved in the negotiations. “We have to look at our current situation and (Local 2805’s) current situation and hopefully come to an understanding.”
Aside from salary, the main sticking point for the firefighters will be retirement benefits.
Currently GPD retirees get paid 3 percent of their last year’s salary for every year they worked at the department. For example, if a police officer retires after 30 years on the force, those years will be multiplied by 3 percent and the officer will receive a retirement check each year equivalent to 90 percent of his or her closing salary, which is the maximum that can be paid.
Under their old contract GFD firefighters are only given 2 percent of their last year’s salary, multiplied by their years worked for their retirement pay. They now want that to be in line with the GPD’s 3 percent.
“Firefighters are not getting hired as young as they use to because of all the specialty training becoming required so the 2 percent doesn’t cut it anymore,” Buessing said.
The union is also seeking medical benefits for GFD retirees, something the GPD’s union negotiated for during its last contract session, according to Buessing.
“We realize times are tough right now for the city,” Buessing said, “and we don’t want to tie the city’s hands. Maybe the solution is a shorter contract, but there are still certain things we are looking for now.”
