By Richard Cowen
The Herald News
PASSAIC, N.J. — With the clock ticking toward a Sunday layoff date, city firefighters met Monday to discuss contract givebacks designed to save some jobs.
The city’s latest offer is for firefighters to give back two weeks’ pay, according to union sources. The offer is on the table for unions representing both rank-and-file firefighters and their superiors — and, if accepted, it could save some of the 20 firefighters targeted for layoff.
A similar offer has been made to 25 city employees scheduled to be laid off on Aug. 18. However, details of those discussions could not be obtained on Monday.
Members of both FMBA Local 113, representing the rank-and-file, and FMBA Local 213, representing superior officers, held separate meetings at the Eastside Firehouse on Monday to discuss the offer. Another meeting, between firefighters and Passaic’s business administrator, Ricardo Fernandez, is scheduled today.
The city is grappling with a hole in the 2011 budget that is estimated at $5 million. Aside from cuts in the fire department, the city has also proposed laying off 25 municipal employees.
But sources within the fire department say that superior officers have thus far balked at the pay giveback. That’s because the city still wants to demote each superior officer one rank, on top of any pay giveback. About 35 of the current 105 firefighters are superior officers.
“I’m already going down a rank, and that’s going to cost me $15,000 a year,” said one superior officer. “And I’m supposed to give back two weeks’ pay on top of that?”
City spokesman Keith Furlong said he’s not optimistic that a deal can be reached with the firefighters. He said municipal workers appeared to be more willing to accept a pay giveback. “Unfortunately, it looks like Monday we’ll begin layoffs in the fire department,” he said.
Capt. Louis Sanchez, the head of Local 213, said no vote was taken and no final decision was made on Monday. “We’re still discussing it,” Sanchez said, although he would provide no further details of the discussion.
Fire Chief Patrick Trentacost said time was running out. “Both parties have to meet in the middle,” Trentacost said. “We’re all hoping for some kind of solution.”
Manpower is already low as a result of typical summertime shortages because of vacations. Normally, the fire department runs six companies, but it has had to periodically shut one down during the past month because of the manpower shortage.
With firefighters reluctant to give money back, about the only hope is that the city taps into either state or federal aid. In years past, money has been available from the federal government through the Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response (SAFER) program, which is sponsored by Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr., D-Paterson.
Congress reauthorized the program in June with a $1.1 billion appropriation through 2014. SAFER is designed to help distressed cities hire new firefighters or avoid layoffs. Passaic has received the funding in previous years, and has applied again, but with less than a week before layoffs are set to begin, there doesn’t appear to be time to plug the hole in the 2011 budget.
“We may get the money and be able to rehire firefighters,” Furlong said.
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