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Firefighters Win Pay Battle

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By ELLEN GEDALIUS

The Tampa Tribune

Published: August 23, 2008

Updated: 08/23/2008 12:19 am

TAMPA - After more than a year of negotiations, protests and a lawsuit, Tampa's firefighters won the pay increases they had been seeking.

The city council voted unanimously Friday to give firefighters a 4 percent cost-of-living raise. The board also voted to keep the step pay plan in place, which amounts to an additional increase averaging 5 percent for firefighters.
Mayor Pam Iorio had proposed eliminating the step plan, arguing it was convoluted and outdated. She proposed replacing it with a 3.5 percent merit increase for all firefighters, plus a 3 percent cost-of-living boost.

Firefighters fought for the larger increases, saying they were necessary to keep good employees from leaving for other departments. The union also said more than half of the firefighters would not receive merit raises because they were at the top of their salary scales.

The difference between what the union asked for Friday and the administration's offer was $685,000.

Starting firefighters make about $34,000. The maximum salary for a veteran firefighter is about $63,000.

Friday's debate was dominated by dueling numbers. An economist for the union presented data to the council showing that Tampa's firefighters get paid less than those in many other places in Florida. Iorio's top officials said the comparisons weren't appropriate.

Friday's vote came before an overflow crowd of firefighters, their families, retired firefighters and union officials from other parts of the region. Many wore yellow stickers saying "Support Tampa firefighters," or yellow T-shirts printed with "I'd die for you. What's that worth?"

About 100 people crowded into the council's chambers. Hundreds of others watched on televisions in the hallways and in a separate room elsewhere in City Hall.

Negotiations with the city have been acrimonious. Robert McCabe, the union's attorney, told the council the mayor essentially told firefighters "they are not worth what they are asking for." He said the city had the money in reserves to pay the firefighters what they wanted.

Kimberly Crum, the city's human resources director, said the administration appreciated the work of the firefighters but had to be mindful of tax dollars as well. Some employees in the private sector are not getting raises, she said, and the "cost of this contract they firefighters are proposing is simply not fiscally responsible."

Property tax reform approved by the state Legislature last year, coupled with the passage of Amendment 1, had a $28 million impact on the city's property tax revenue in the past two years, finance director Bonnie Wise said.

The union also sought more pay for emergency medical technicians and paramedics. Initially, the union wanted the city to give EMTs an additional 2.5 percent of their salary and paramedics 7.5 percent.

Late Thursday, however, council Chairman Tom Scott received a letter from the union revising that proposal, asking instead for EMTs to be paid an extra $30 every two weeks and paramedics an extra $110.

The administration had not planned to offer any extra pay. The council went along with the union's revised proposal.

Fewer than 10 firefighters and union officials addressed the council during the public comment portion of the meeting. Those who did mostly had the same message: Firefighters deserved more money.

"The city has simply slammed the door in our face," firefighter John Bogush said. "At any given moment I'll risk ... or sacrifice my life."

Some council members had reservations about approving the pay plan, but all ultimately voted in favor of the union.

"There's being fiscally conservative," Councilwoman Mary Mulhern said, "and then there's seeming like you are doing that. No one in the city has told me the firefighters don't deserve to have these increases.

"This is modest," she said.

Councilman Joseph Caetano said he was supporting the firefighters because "these men and women work their butt off."

For the past several weeks, Iorio has been cautioning the council that the way they settled the fire union's contract would set the tone for contract negotiations with the Amalgamated Transit Union this year and the police union next year.

After the vote, city chief of staff Darrell Smith reiterated that point.

"If they do not get this at the bargaining table, they have this as an avenue," he said.

Fire union President Larry Parker said: "It was a fair decision. We compromised all through the negotiations. We gave up quite a bit."

The union will hold a vote to ratify the contract, and then the council must approve a resolution before the one-year contract, which expires Sept. 30, takes effect. The union has been working without a contract since the existing one expired last year.

Having the city council settle a contract dispute is rare. After several rounds of negotiations last year, the firefighters union declared an impasse and turned to a special magistrate to help settle the dispute. When the special magistrate sided with the administration, the firefighters rejected the recommendations, landing the matter in the council's hands.

The last time the city council settled a fire union contract dispute was in 1993, when the council sided with the union's request to trim workweeks from 52 to 48 hours.

Reporter Ellen Gedalius can be reached at (813) 259-7679 or egedalius@tampatrib.com.

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