NEW YORK — A new fire cadet diversity program being developed by the FDNY is under fire by the firefighters’ union.
NY Daily News reported that the program would allow up to 100 participants from city high schools to function as de facto firefighter trainees for two years and give them a fast-track into the highly competitive job. Sources say there’s a certain percentage of slots set aside for minorities.
The high school cadets would work 20 hours a week and get paid $14 an hour. At the end of the program, those who take the written entrance exam and pass the physical, background and mental checks would be first to get hired. Outside applicants would have to wait to get selected after them, according to the report.
Mayor de Blasio and the FDNY committed to the cadet program in March 2014 as part of a settlement to a long-running intentional discrimination suit. The cadet program will focus on “underrepresented groups who may not have considered firefighting as a career because they do not have friends or relatives in the FDNY,” according to the report.
“It’s obvious this decision is being done on a political basis, who is going to pick these 100 cadets who will almost certainly be guaranteed a firefighter job? Who picks them, who decides?” said Uniformed Firefighters Association president Steve Cassidy.
Fire Commissioner Daniel Nigro will testify in favor of the proposal at a meeting with city officials Monday.