Under tentative pact, 9 laid-off firefighters would return to work; city would save $2.1M in payroll by closing fire station

RUSS OLIVO

WOONSOCKET — Nine firefighters who were laid off March 7 in the culmination of a high-profile courtroom battle would be recalled under a tentative collective bargaining agreement between Mayor Susan D. Menard and Local 732 of the International Association of Fire Firefighters.

But the three-year pact would save the city over $2.1 million in payroll costs through June 30, 2011 and calls for significant sacrifice from the IAFF, including a lower minimum manning threshold that would require the elimination of a fire station.
The City Council is scheduled to meet on Tuesday night to consider ratifying the pact. The IAFF is expected to hold a ratification soon, but Lt. Steven Reilly, president of the union, could not be reached to say when.
Reilly declined to talk about the proposed pact earlier this week, saying it was still tentative. Chris Lambert, the city's labor lawyer, has also declined to discuss it prior to a ratification vote by the council. Documents obtained by The Call, however, indicate the proposal contains similar provisions on health care co-pays and salary as the contract imposed on the International Brotherhood of Police Officers recently as a result of binding arbitration.
Union firefighters, who currently make no contribution toward health care premiums, would pay $25 a week for the balance of the fiscal year. Beginning July 1, they would pay $28 a week through June 30, 2011.
Firefighters, who have no contract for the current fiscal year and had been seeking to obtain one through arbitration, would abandon that effort under the proposal. They would receive no pay raises for the current year,  none for the next and — like the IBPO — settle on a hike somewhere between 2.75 and 4.75 percent in fiscal 2011, subject to further talks.
While the city agrees to recall the laid-off firefighters, it projects some $187,646 in savings this year by leaving 10 other positions emptied by retirements permanently unfilled. The cuts would  reduce the union workforce from 135 to 124 (including the transfer of a fire clerk to a municipal union) beginning July 1 and save far more in the future — about $775,000 in salary and benefits every year going forward.
The cuts mean the highest number of employees allowed under the minimum manning provisions of the IAFF's contract would be trimmed from 28 firefighters for each of four revolving platoons to 26 – a change that cannot be accomplished without closing down one of the city's five fire station and eliminating one engine squad. Officials have not yet settled on which fire station would be closed, but they have indicated previously that the likeliest contenders are the Fairmount or North Main Street stations.
Some officials have spoken publicly of closing down both stations if the city obtains a $15 million economic stimulus grant to build a new, centrally located replacement station somewhere in the Social Flatlands – maybe even in what is now World War II Veterans Memorial State Park. The city is in talks with the state, which owns the park, about the future of the facility, according to officials at the Department of Environmental Management.
If ratified by both the IBPO and the council, the pact would also resolve a labor grievance the IAFF lodged against the city in January over a policy restricting overtime to be reimbursed only as compensation time. The total amount of accumulated overtime since then has been about $170,000.
 Under the settlement, the union would accept a cash payment for the straight time portion of the settlement, or about $106,000, a sum the city would dole out in three installments next fiscal year. The balance of $64,000 would remain on the books as compensation time, still be available to union members.
The settlement would also end all grievances stemming from the layoffs, which the city imposed after a weeklong legal battle in Superior Court in February. The union argued that the proposed layoffs violated minimum manning guarantees and posed an undue health risk to firefighters facing more stressful working conditions, including forced overtime. But Judge Susan McGuirl sided with the city, saying the city had the power to make cuts to avert a fiscal crisis.
The city argued that the cuts were needed to help wipe out a $3.6 million budget hole caused by shrinking state aid. Union members contended all along that the cuts would drive increased overtime that would, at best, eat up the savings – a point city officials have all but conceded of late. As of May 24, officials say layoff-related overtime had cost the city over $50,000.
Initially, the city laid off 11 firefighters after McGuirl's order, but two were recalled a short time later after two more firefighters, including former Chief Kenneth A. Finlay, suddenly retired. Finlay is now chief of the neighboring North Cumberland Fire Department and he has been succeeded by Chief Gary Lataille.
Members of the City Council were briefed on the proposed contract Wednesday night and were favorably impressed, according to Councilman Roger G. Jalette Sr.
“The city was very pleased and so was the council,” said Jalette, who predicted the panel would easily ratify the contract. “Everything is up to the union membership now.”