Correction
An earlier version of this story contained incorrect information about the length
of the proposed firefighter concession.
of the proposed firefighter concession.
for the next year in a bid to keep all the city’s fire stations open and engine
companies staffed.
Redding Firefighters Association Local 1934 leaders this afternoon staged
a press conference at City Hall to announce the proposed concession.
Firefighters would give up 7 ½ percent in raises and up to an additional
4 1/2 percent in incentive pay for retired members of the Shasta Cascade
Hazardous Materials Response Team hired back to work for cash, under
the proposed concessions.
All told, the concession, if approved, would save the city $1.5 million for
one year beginning in October.
In exchange, firefighters have asked the city to extend the union’s contract
one year, to 2015.
The City Council is expected to consider the offer in closed session Tuesday
evening.
The concession offer comes in response to a request from the city that the
union look for ways to close a $1.34 million gap in the fire department budget,
said Lonnie Schreiber, Redding Firefighters Association president.
The city would have likely closed a fire station or eliminated an engine company
had firefighters not agreed to the concession, Schreiber said.
“Eliminating another engine company would be too dangerous to the community
and to firefighters,” Schreiber said.
The city last year extended the firefighters contract two years when the union
offered concessions totaling roughly $675,000.
But in July, the council refused to extend contracts for rank and file Redding
police officers and for police managers when those two groups offered a
concession to the city in an effort to keep four officers slated for layoff in
December on the street through September 2011.
- September 21, 2010
- 4:26 a.m
American Firefighters for making this class
offer. I have watched you play second fiddle
to the ever-increasing and bloated police
union who have been given the farm repeatably
at the expense of your brave men and women
as will as human services.
It is an honor to share the same air and
city with you people. God Bless you all.