By Jennifer Myers
The Lowell Sun (Massachusetts)
LOWELL, Mass. — Two of the city’s municipal unions have agreed to concessions to help bridge the city’s fiscal 2009 budget gap and avoid layoffs.
The 198-member Lowell Firefighter’s Union voted Thursday night to give up compensation for two of their 12 paid holidays, a move that will save the city $130,000. Meanwhile, the four-member Engineers Union will take three days off, unpaid, similar to the city’s 40 non-union employees who were notified of their furlough earlier this month. The engineers’ concession will save the city $4,000.
“We recognize the financial situation the city is in, and this vote was all about sharing the burden,” said firefighters union President Lt. Dave Keene. “We have been able to work with (City Manager Bernie Lynch) since he took office and will continue to do so.”
Peter Maloney, who represents the city’s unionized engineers, said his group took the vote to save jobs.
“We do not want to see anyone get laid off. There are only four of us, and we understand that the money has to be made up somehow,” he said. “We lost a lot of people to early retirement who were not replaced, and we cannot afford to lose any more guys down here.”
This week’s union moves, coupled with the furlough of non-union employees, cuts the city’s $3 million budget shortfall created by Gov. Deval Patrick’s midyear local-aid cuts to $397,000.
“The unions have been very cooperative,” Lynch said. “It is a credit to them that (the firefighters and engineers) took the vote.”
He added that he will continue discussions with the remaining municipal unions in an effort to balance the budget.
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