By Dan Kelly
The Reading Eagle
READING, Pa. — Cloudy, fall-like weather wasn’t the only thing that put a chill in the air Monday as the Reading police honor guard and a phalanx of 30 city firefighters led off the 22nd Annual Labor Day Parade and Celebration.
The parade through downtown Reading came three days after Mayor Tom McMahon announced the city might have to cut as many as 45 police, 35 fire and 15 rank-and-file city jobs to close a $15 million budget gap.
Many of the men and women who marched in the parade did so with the knowledge they might not have jobs next Labor Day.
“We have 22 people on duty today,” Fire Chief William H. Rehr III said. “That number could be 10 or 12 or 14 this time next year.”
McMahon said he came out as he always does on Labor Day to support the city’s workers.
“We’re all struggling with this recession,” McMahon said. “These (city workers) are good people, and like all good people they’re worried about their safety and the safety of people in the city.”
Mothers, wives, children and other supporters of police and firefighters carried signs decrying the proposed layoff s.
“The city is trying to burn us,” read a sign carried by Lori Stoudt, mother of Second Deputy Fire Chief William I. Stoudt Jr.
Three generations of their family marched in the parade.
Also simmering beneath the surface was the revelation last month that the city firefighters union had taken steps to have nonunion suburban firefighters excluded from the parade.
Both sides tried to downplay the union/nonunion flap, saying it was behind them. But it was clear the dispute was still a sore point and that some buffer between union and nonunion firefighters was needed.
For one, though city firefighters and union firefighters from Spring Township led the parade, the nonunion volunteers from Kenhorst and West Reading brought up the rear.
And, while the city and Spring firefighters met up at Eighth and Court streets near the start of the parade route, the volunteers from Kenhorst and West Reading were told to muster in the 300 block of South Second Street on the other side of downtown.
Keith Eschleman, president of the city firefighters union, said the dispute over letting suburban volunteers march in the parade was a mistake and that he took full responsibility for it.
“It was ridiculous — how it got blown out of proportion,” Eschleman said.
He said the dispute began after a letter he sent to the United Labor Council of Berks County became public a few weeks ago. In it, he asked the council why volunteers are allowed to march in the parade.
Eschleman pointed to several members of the Spring Township Fire Department who were mustering with the city firefighters and their families just before the start of the parade at 10 a.m.
“Look, they’re even wearing our shirts,” Eschleman said. “They’re here to support us.”
But Eschleman didn’t mention that eight Spring firefighters are paid, full-time firefighters applying for membership in the International Association of Firefi ghters.
“We don’t have (firefighters union) shirts yet, so the Reading guys let us wear theirs,” said a township firefighter who declined to give his full name.
Meanwhile, as the union firefighters were marching toward FirstEnergy Stadium, West Reading Fire Company Chief Mark D. Burkholder and Kenhorst Fire Company Chief Roger Weidenheimer and their men were cooling their heels on South Second Street next to a chain link fence that surrounds an empty parking lot.
“We’re glad to be here today,” Burkholder said. “I don’t know why, but we’re always in the back of the parade.”
Burkholder said his company marched in the parade as a show of support for city firefighters.
He said he was surprised when he learned that Eschleman wrote the letter about volunteers long before it became public.
“But we’re all in agreement and we all have to work together,” Burkholder said. “We don’t want to see anyone lose their jobs in these layoffs.”
Weidenheimer said Eschleman never talked to the volunteers about getting them out of the parade.
“We never spoke to Eschleman,” Weidenheimer said.
Burkholder said he thought it was odd that Eschleman didn’t want volunteer firefighters in the parade but had no problem with other volunteer groups marching, such as the American Red Cross.
Copyright 2009 Reading Eagle