AUSTINTOWN Firefighters, trustees are at odds over pact

The union says it won't meet with township negotiators.
By IAN HILL
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
AUSTINTOWN -- The firefighters union is accusing township trustees of backing out of a contract agreement reached in May.
"All of a sudden, their word didn't mean a thing," said Atty. Dennis Haines, who represents the union.
Last week, the union filed a complaint with the State Employment Relations Board saying that trustees have refused to approve the new contract.
The union also states in the complaint that it believes trustees want to violate an agreement on the minimum number of full-time firefighters required to work each shift under the contract.
According to the union, trustees agreed to require a minimum of five full-time firefighters and one part-time firefighter to work each shift, as they had in the previous contract.
According to the trustees, however, the union agreed to allow four full-time firefighters and two part-time firefighters to work each shift.
SERB will investigate the complaint.
Matter of perspective
Assistant Mahoning County Prosecutor Dawn Durkin, who represents the township, said the proposed contract wasn't put in writing during negotiations in May. Durkin said the union later typed the contract and sent it to trustees.
That's when the dispute began, she said.
Trustee Richard Edwards said the dispute was a result of a "difference of opinion."
"What they believe occurred and what we believed occurred are two different things," he said.
Durkin said she hopes to meet with Haines to try and resolve the dispute.
Setting a precedent
Both Haines and union president George Teutsch, however, said the union will no longer meet with the township to discuss the proposed contract. Negotiations began late last year; the union's previous contract expired in December.
"From this point on, there isn't going to be meetings with them," Teutsch said. "If we have to go to binding arbitration, we're going to go through with it, or they could sign the contract they agreed to."
Haines noted that if the union and trustees go to binding arbitration, trustees could lose health-care concessions the union agreed to include in the proposed contract.
Union officials said the proposed three-year contract calls for firefighters to pay a $20 per month insurance premium if they are single or a $30 per month premium if they have a family. Firefighters would receive a 3 percent raise in each year of the proposed contract.
The township paid insurance premiums under past contracts.
Haines said that in addition, the proposed contract calls for firefighters to pay more for co-pays, deductibles and prescriptions than they had in previous contracts.
The cost of prescriptions under the proposed contract, however, also is in dispute. Union officials said they agreed to pay as much as $20 per prescription, while trustees want them to pay as much as $22 per prescription.
Teutsch noted that the union agreed during negotiations that trustees wouldn't have to hire a new full-time firefighter to replace Chuck Hanni, who recently took a job as a state fire investigator.
hill@vindy.com