Escondido council breaks firefighters' pay impasse

Friday, February 27, 2009

Escondido council breaks firefighters' pay impasse

ESCONDIDO: The City Council voted 3-2 yesterday to break an impasse over pay with the Escondido Firefighters Association and imposed the city's offer on the union.

The impasse was over additional pay for advanced training and education, which would have cost the city $21,000 this year.

Union representatives told the council that firefighters already had agreed to sacrifice part of their benefits to help the city close its $7.4 million budget gap. The concessions included suspending the city's contribution to their 401(k) plans and pay raises for firefighters who advance on their pay scale.

Those concessions already have been made by the California Teamster Local 911, which represents maintenance and operation workers, and the Escondido City Employees Association. The employees association also agreed to a 5 percent pay cut, which was not required of any other union.

Yesterday, a council majority – Mayor Lori Holt Pfeiler and Councilmen Dick Daniels and Sam Abed – said they could not give the firefighters what they wanted because it would be unfair to other unions that already had agreed to suspend additional pay for advanced training and education.

The other two council members – Olga Diaz and Marie Waldron – wanted to give the firefighters the training and education pay. –A.L.

Source: http://www3.signonsandiego.com - Link

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Friday, February 27, 2009