Politics & Government

Benicia Firefighters May Have Contract Imposed by City Council

After declaring impasse in July, firefighters and city fail to find common ground in mediation.

There's a battle brewing between the City of Benicia and its firefighters.  The two have been trying to renegotiate a labor agreement for the past four months and are no closer to an agreement now than when they started.

The Vallejo-Times Herald reported that a contract may be imposed on the Benicia Firefighters Association at a special meeting of the City Council on Wednesday, September 28.

The action, if approved by the Council, would represent a unilateral implementation of changes in wages, hours, and terms and conditions of employment for employees in the BFA - all designed to achieve savings identified as essential to the City's financial health. Benicia's firefighters have already rejected the contract the coucil is expected to impose.

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In May the City Council learned the city faced a $1.7 million budget deficit for the 2011-2012 fiscal year, and directed the city manager to close the gap with 75 percent of the money coming from employee compensation and the remaining 25 percent coming from services.

The council also directed that the savings from employees be on-going and not one time cuts.  For example, the city's contract offer eliminates holiday pay while the union is proposing holiday pay be cut in the near term but reinstated beginning in fiscal year 2012-2013.

Find out what's happening in Beniciawith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The directive that the savings be on-going is at the heart of the dispute between the City and the Benicia Firefghters Association. For example, the city's contract offer eliminates holiday pay while the union is proposing holiday pay be cut in the near term but reinstated beginning in fiscal year 2012-2013.

See the tables in this article to see a comparison of the city's proposals and the union's.  A separate table shows the union's proposals and the city's responses.

The firefighters claim the second item in their proposal would save the city $431,000 over two years. 

The city rejected the proposals made by BFA because changes were only proposed to stay in place for two years or restricted the city's ability to make staffing decisions.

"We made it very clear we were looking for long-term structural changes," said Benicia City Manager Brad Kilger.  "Whatever they (BFA) did offer was not long-term in nature nor was it structural."


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