The strategy employed by the City of Erie’s fire union to stay the course in the face of pending budget cuts seems at first glance to put them at odds with their own rank-and-file members.
The decision to hold the line on concessions could well prove to be a key factor in the layoffs of as many as 16 firefighters.
The union leaders have balked at a request to have members pay 15 percent of their insurance co-pays (they currently pay nothing) because that has been a benefit negotiated over the years.
That’s despite the fact that very few of us in the private work force pay zero in co-pays and despite the fact that the administration has made a pretty good argument that there are few other places this year in which to cut.
So from an outsider’s perspective, it would appear better to spread a little pain over a larger workforce with what is still reasonable co-pay as opposed to having 16 firefighters lose their jobs.
But there are other factors at work:
Previous mayors have pulled the “Chicken Little” argument that the world is coming to an end without concessions, and in the past the money was always found in time.
In retrospect, it now looks like previous administrations pillaged savings accounts to make that happen, mortgaging the future for current political capital.
Union leaders also know that because they can not strike, governments use a binding arbitration system that often favors the workforce over the administration. Arbitrators usually side with the workers when communities have not reached taxing limits, arguing that workers deserve the same increases seen in material costs as long as those pockets are still out there to be pilfered.
Finally, (and there aren’t many union members who will admit to this) it may be a lesser evil to some to sacrifice jobs now and hope for a turnaround as opposed to giving up a gold standard benefit that once lost will never come back. In fact, many believe that once the co-pay seal is broken, then it will just become a question of how high of a percentage can be negotiated every cycle.
Look for a lot of finger pointing in the weeks to come, from both an exasperated administration and a union leadership that is not reaping the expected benefit of putting its eggs in Mayor Joe Sinnott’s election basket.
But as the battle rages on between the two sides, there are 16 families caught in the middle, wondering if anyone is looking out for them.
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