Mass. firefighters sacrifice benefits to limit station closure

July 15, 2009 05:22 AM

By Alexandra Mayer-Hohdahl
The Lowell Sun

TEWKSBURY, Mass. — Two weeks after the South Fire Station shut its doors, selectmen last night endorsed $100,000 in firefighter concessions that will help limit the station’s closing to two months.

But Douglas Sears was the only one to vote against the memorandum of agreement with firefighters, saying that the closing of the South Fire Station makes “no public-safety sense.”

He also criticized the “rinky-dink” benefits that firefighters will forgo in fiscal 2010, suggesting that they shouldn’t have been a part of their contract in the first place.

“What other companies would have clothing allowances, free days, reward days?” he asked. “Nobody but the Fire Department gets this type of stuff on the town’s dime. This is what is standing in the way of us getting an ambulance or an engine down there.”

The comments left union President Joseph Kearns fuming.

“I can’t even talk about this right now,” a visibly angry Kearns said as he left Town Hall. “He obviously has no appreciation for what we did — giving up $100,000.”

Firefighters gets a $600 clothing account to offset the cost of uniforms under their contract. Half of that allowance will be given up in fiscal 2010, generating $15,000 in savings.

Another $22,000 will be saved by scrapping the use of “free days” this fiscal year. Such a day can be garnered once a year if a firefighter does not use any sick days over a period of six months.

Fire Chief Richard Mackey said free days are an incentive to diminish the use of sick days, which generate overtime costs.

The biggest savings — $63,500 — will come from firefighters who would have gotten “reward days” in fiscal 2010. They have agreed not to take time off or money under that program. It was not clear last night how reward days are given out.

In exchange, firefighters who do use a reward day in fiscal 2011 will not see it be deducted from their sick leave for that year.

The agreement also calls for a substation to be closed once again if there are any more “unforeseen fiscal shortfalls” this year.

For now, the South Fire Station will be shuttered until Sept. 8. Selectmen acknowledged the frustration and worry that has caused, but said residents couldn’t realistically expect their services not to be impacted when they voted for a $300,000 cut to be applied to the Fire Department budget.

“Every resident has to step back and think about the times we’re in,” Chairman Todd Johnson said. “This agreement keeps three fire stations open for 10 months — that’s how I prefer to look at it.”

But one selectman argued that the board should have been more forthcoming in acknowledging the possibility of the station having to close for the second year in a row.

“We said that we would keep all stations open, when in the back of our minds we knew that (the South Fire Station closing) was a possibility,” Selectman Anne Marie Stronach said. “Shame on us for not doing our homework sooner.”