Latest battle between city, firefighters: 'Brownouts' that leave some stations unmanned
By adamg - Wed, 07/01/2009 - 6:40pm.
The Dorchester Reporter fills us in.
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enough! settle it constructively
The dispute between the city and the firefighters union is not constructive. Most of their energy is spent trying to make the other party look like the bad guy.
They city tries to cut costs by eliminating systemic overtime pay to manage absences and the union tries to make the city look bad by claiming city policies make citizens less safe with regard to fire safety. Grow the fuck up and negotiate a contract already. Get the workout rooms and mental health benefits, substance abuse treatment, whatever... but stop making transparently false claims about the other sides disregard for our safety. please
Seriously?
Anon, those of us who are rational can see that closing companies obviously affects response times. It's only a matter of time before we see some effect of this dangerous policy. Why is it that every other city department was ordered to cut their budget by 2%, while the fire department is cut 4%? Probably doesn't have anything to do with being on the mayor's hit list. Funny that the cops get all the OT they need in the interest of public safety.
Amen to that!
Amen to that!
There is a difference
between overtime created by extra work, and overtime created by other workers calling in sick.
The fault here lies with bad management, contracts and some scamming employees that abuse the system.
The real issue
Brownouts are not the issue. The real issue appears to be the amount of sick days taken by firefighters, which is totally out of whack. Until sick days are managed effectively, I don't want to hear about brownouts. Nevermind the fact that firefighters get what, 15, sick days?
Corporate HR figured out
Corporate HR figured out that separating sick,vacation and personal days into separate counts was a mistake and instituted "paid time off" which amounts to 15-21 days plus holidays. Thus corporate workers have an incentive to use their "sick time" wisely. (Benefits such as short-term and long term disability need not be affected.)