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Greater Kansas City’s fire fighters union and the City of Kansas City reached an agreement May 10, but it wasn’t without qualms.
The three-year collective bargaining agreement utilizes several means to reach a $7.6 million savings in the fire department. Through early retirement and natural attrition, 33 senior fire fighting positions will be eliminated. Reductions in force are not allowed after the 33 is reached.
Overtime standards will also change. Currently, fire fighters work a 49.5-hour work week, but with the new agreement, that will change to a 53-hour work week.
“We don’t earn any overtime until we work over 212 hours in a 28-day period,” Local 42 President Michael Cambiano told Northeast News. “We decided that it would be better for public safety and better for our safety on the scene if we made a concession instead of laying off 105 guys.”
Other savings will come from a pay freeze in 2012. However, pay raises for junior members will resume in years 2014 and 2015, but step increases will not be adjusted for the cost of living. If other city employees receive pay raises department-wide during the three-year agreement, Local 42 members must also receive the same increase.
Finally, to further save money, the agreement proposes the closure of Pumper 1 at the former Richards-Gebaur Air Base and Pumper 32 near Westport.
While City Council member Jim Glover commended the savings initiative of early retirement and new overtime standards, he voiced concern with a multi-year agreement.
“Multi-year agreements can be difficult to enforce in the future,” he said.
Another concern of his, he said, is that while the need for fire suppression personnel is going down, the need for emergency personnel is continuing to rise. The agreement doesn’t address that issue, he said.
City Council member Ed Ford also disliked a multi-year agreement and said the agreement doesn’t address pension reform and locks in more than 1,200 fire fighters for the next three years.
“It’s a larger force than we probably need or can afford,” Ford said.
City Council member Scott Wagner supported the agreement and said that a number of concerns, like ambulance response times, will be addressed through the Ambulance/EMS Service Planning Task Force, which must be formed by June 1, 2012, according to the agreement. Task force members will develop an ambulance/EMS deployment plan, address employee safety and patient care issues, develop a hiring process for paramedics, among others.
“To me, this agreement represents a good faith effort on both sides,” Wagner said. “It represents an opportunity to tackle issues we still have.”
Pumper closures
Two members of the city council said closing the two pumper stations could have detrimental effects. Closing the pumper station at Richards-Gebaur would leave millions of dollars worth of infrastructure unprotected, said City Council member John Sharp.
Cambiano agreed.
“The reason that Station 1 has always been maintained is because there’s a railroad line that runs through there and if a train’s coming through that way, the other companies in the southland won’t be able to get south of 133rd Street,” Cambiano said.
Westport, on the other hand, contains large commercial buildings and aging structures comprised of highly flammable materials, he said.
“It just seems crazy to shut down a pumper in one of the busiest parts of the city, especially considering the age of the structures,” Cambiano said. “Just imagine how many people go to the Plaza and the Westport area besides those who live there.”
To combat the closures of the two pumpers, which would take effect later this summer, Local 42 will apply for the federal SAFER (Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Responses) grant. The two-year grant would keep the pumpers open for two more years and comes with no strings attached, Cambiano said. Local 42 will know in late August if it received the grant.
While Cambiano said he’s grateful the city approved the agreement, it’s not a victory for the fire fighters.
“I think it’s good for the citizens, but it’s a shame the fire fighters had to make a sacrifice of this magnitude,” he said.
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