Contract change would freeze pay

By Denise Dick

The union is expected to vote on the contract change tonight.

BOARDMAN — A change in the firefighters union contract approved by trustees calls for no raises for two years and an increased employee health-care contribution.

Trustees approved the addendum to the contract, approved in January, at a meeting Monday. The International Association of Firefighters Local 1176 is expected to vote on the change at a meeting tonight.

Harry Wolfe, union president, is optimistic about its passage.

Wolfe said firefighters recognize the township’s financial problems and believe employees and the township must work together to address them.

Administrator Jason Loree estimated the contract addendum will save the township at least $72,000.

The change continues firefighters’ 2008 salary through March 2011 when the revised pact expires. The original pact called for a 2.5 percent increase in 2009 and expiration in March 2010. The addendum eliminates the 2.5 percent increase for 2009 and adds another year also with no pay increase.

The annual salary ranges from $35,818 for an entry-level firefighter to $68,595 for assistant chiefs.

“We’re trying to show the public that we’re not after new money,” the union president said.

Robyn Gallitto, trustees chairwoman, complimented Wolfe and Loree on reaching a compromise.

“Hopefully, this paves the way to show that we’re headed in the right direction,” she said.

Trustees passed the change unanimously. Trustee Kathy Miller previously had voted against the addendum, but she said she had time to research it further before the vote.

The addendum also immediately increases, from 7.5 percent to 10 percent uncapped, the premium cost of the firefighters’ health insurance contribution. The January pact called for the premium contribution to increase to 10 percent April 2009.

The total cost of health care varies from $5,000 for an employee with a single plan to $15,000 per year for those on a family plan. The 10 percent employee contribution is based on that amount.

The change also settled two grievances filed by the union.

One dealt with whether the township should pay the health-care contribution for nine firefighters laid off in February. The other was the union’s protest to the trustees’ decision to remove the minimum manning provision in the contract because it had added up to heavy overtime costs.

The township will pay for the firefighters’ health-care contribution, estimated at about $5,100.

Gallitto said she was concerned the union might win the grievance because of the contract’s wording. That would have cost the township more money because it would have had to pay costs associated with arbitration.

Layoffs were made Feb. 27 and under the contract, health coverage continues for up to six months.

Loree said that the deadline for other unions to challenge the health-care costs has passed.

The contract change also reinstitutes a minimum-manning provision calling for eight firefighters per shift. When trustees eliminated minimum manning earlier this year, it called for nine firefighters per shift.

Fire Chief James Dorman said the lower number will enable the department to keep two stations open as summer vacation season hits its peak. The department has three stations, but since the February layoffs, the South Avenue station has been closed for many shifts and the Shields Road station closed periodically because of an insufficient number of firefighters working to staff them.