By LANCASTER NEW ERA
Lancaster firefighters are rightly praised for their swift and decisive response in times of crisis, but there is nothing swift or decisive &tstr; or reasonable &tstr; in the way they are responding to the city's financial crisis.
Instead of answering the call to do their part to help ease the city's financial burden, the firefighters, members of International Association of Fire Fighters Local 319, are stubbornly adhering to the terms of a generous contract they negotiated a year-and-a-half ago &tstr; a time when the economy was bad, but not nearly as bad as it is today.
So while many city taxpayers are having their wages frozen or cut &tstr; if they have jobs, at all &tstr; and they're looking at a 25 percent increase in property taxes, firefighters this month began enjoying a 3.25 percent bump in pay, in accordance with their October 2008 contract.
Firefighters already were earning roughly $60,000 a year &tstr; nearly twice that of the average wage earner in Lancaster County &tstr; and the latest salary increase only serves to widen the income gap.
All this did not come without cost to rank-and-file firefighters.
In a move that would have believers in the union movement shaking their heads, the majority of Local 319 voted to send four of their "brothers" to the unemployment line rather than reduce their pay increase this year from 3.25 percent to 1 percent.
Had the union agreed to the smaller salary increase, Tuesday's layoffs would not have occurred. Four young men, the next generation of firefighters, still would have employment.
Capt. Ken Barton, who heads the union local, insists money isn't the issue. He claims his membership is more concerned about the ramifications of a proposed schedule change.
That schedule change would have major repercussions that rightly would concern any union &tstr; much longer work hours and as many as 13 layoffs in exchange for $1.2 million in savings.
But that was not the issue on the table now. The current issue was a 1 percent raise and four men stay, or a 3.25 percent raise and four men go.
The firefighters took the money.
For Lancaster, their unwillingness to sacrifice was a harsh blow.
Still feeling the effects of the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, the city, as with other cities across the country, is drowning in a river of red ink.
Chances are the positions lost through furlough won't be coming back too soon, if at all &tstr; the city is in that bad of shape, financially.
The firefighters' union was in a position to toss the city a financial life line, but didn't. This would not have assured the city fiscal stability, but what the union did almost assuredly makes matters worse.
Barton and his union should re-think their strategy. If their concern really is scheduling, and not money, why reject both? Why not give back the pay increases alone and take up the issue of scheduling sometime in the future?
City firefighters need not bear the entire burden of sacrifice as the city seeks to right its financial ship. Others need to step up.
But firefighters can -- and should -- do their part.
