Mayor Calls LA City Fire’s Tactics “Irresponsible”
Los Angeles City President says the offer is “not encouraging.”
Thursday, Jan 7, 2010 | Updated 2:58 PM PDT
Firefighter recruits run with ladders as they practice 'throwing ladders,' or erecting them, against the side of a building during training by the Los Angeles Fire Department at the Frank Hotchkin Memorial Training Center.
Union officials representing Los Angeles city firefighters spurned the latest contract offer from the city, prompting Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa to call them “irresponsible” Friday.
United Firefighters of Los Angeles City President Pat McOsker told City News Service the contract offer was “not encouraging.”
“It's only the second proposal made by the city in five months of negotiating,” he said. “Without going into detail, all they've done now is switch to slightly different sacrifices, but it's equally objectionable because they're not on par with what the rest of the city's workforce is being asked to do.”
Villaraigosa dismissed UFLAC's claim that people would die because the Fire Department is taking 15 fire trucks and nine ambulances out of service for a year because the union would not agree to salary reductions.
Firefighters have said these so-called “brownouts” would lengthen response times, which could lead to deaths.
But Villaraigosa said, “There's no such thing as brownouts. There are approximately 1,100 firefighters on any given day. All we're eliminating is about 87 of them on any given day.”
He criticized the union's leadership for “refusing to engage in the shared sacrifice and responsibility that we have talked about.”
“Look, we didn't make up this economic crisis,” Villaraigosa said. “All we've asked (the firefighters) to do is to take a small cut. The leadership of that union has refused to do that so they're engaged in the irresponsible -- let me repeat -- the irresponsible activity of putting signs in front of fire stations and scaring the public.”
Villaraigosa said he has cut his own salary by 16 percent over the last two years. He now makes about $190,000 a year.
“I'm leading by example,” he said. “We're not asking anyone to do anything on that magnitude, but what we are saying is we just don't have the money right now and we need everybody to pitch in.”
McOsker said the 3,500-member UFLAC wants the same deal that the city gave to the 22,000-member Coalition of L.A. City Unions.
That deal, which has been ratified by the union but is still being considered by the City Council, called for delaying coalition members' salary increases by two years. It also provided early retirement benefits, cash bonuses, and some protection from layoffs and furloughs.
“Shared sacrifice is supposed to be shared, it's supposed to be equal,” McOsker said. “Unfortunately, the mayor has resorted to the traditional process in this city of playing favorites, of playing one union against another, of whipsawing us. He's cut a deal with one group that he is unwilling to offer to other groups.”
McOsker said that the basic salary of the lowest-ranking firefighter is about $80,000, and that the city's original offer called for 10 to 20 percent in pay cuts.
To protect against that, the union is mounting an aggressive campaign.
Last week, about 100 of them marched into City Council chambers. This week, they posted an interactive map on their Web site to let the public know which fire stations will have fewer fire trucks and ambulances on call.
On Saturday, they plan to walk the streets of Chatsworth to warn the public about the allegedly grave consequences of the so-called brownouts.
