PHILADELPHIA LEAVES FIREFIGHTERS HANGING

COUNCILMAN NUTTER BEFORE HE BECAME MAYOR NUTTER. TYPICAL LYING POLITICIAN.

From the Act 111 Interest Arbitration between the City of Philadelphia and Philadelphia Fire Fighters’ Union, IAFF Local 22, issued October 17, 2008:

7. Personal Gear and Equipment

a. Personal Equipment. On or before March 31, 2009, the City will conduct training on and provide each fire suppression bargaining unit member with the following: (1) personal flashlight that mounts to the front of the bunker gear, (2) personal escape system similar to the one requested by the Union, and (3) 1″ tubular nylon webbing.

This is the exact wording from our last contract concerning safety equipment. Word for word. Let’s forget for a second that Philly firefighters have to bargain for safety equipment in the first place, because the City refuses to provide us with the equipment we need to stay safe. This equipment still hasn’t been issued and is three months overdue. Our Union asked for and won this equipment because of this tragedy that happened in New York City: BLACK SUNDAY

This language is unusually specific for one of our contracts. Our contracts are usually very vague with tons of loopholes the city exploits in order to delay implementation of anything we gain – like diesel exhaust systems (7 years, but who’s counting?). Things we lose disappear immediately.

The award goes as far as to specify the date and the items to be provided because the arbitrators who decide our contracts understand the issue of safety is critically important. Since the administration forces firefighters to bargain for safety items, anything awarded needs to be provided in a timely fashion by the city.

It’s now been 100 days since the deadline passed. The City of Philadelphia is in violation of our contract and they don’t care one bit. In a further display of arrogant indifference to the safety of its rank and file firefighters, I have been told that today the city transferred the money it was supposed to use for these items into the GENERAL FUND!

Undoubtedly, it will now be spent on items other than safety equipment for firefighters. It may now take YEARS for us to get the equipment we were awarded. This is blatant disregard for State Law and I wish some of our State Legislators would look in to this fiasco. We need protection from this administration.

The city took this action because we are now working without a contract. They have declared war on us in an effort to intimidate our Union and our members into accepting dismal contracts with enormous wage and benefit reductions. They have placed their economic agenda far and above the safety of their employees and the citizens we protect. This administration has shown a level of hostility toward public safety and law enforcement that makes Ed Rendell look like a piker.  It’s all out war on public safety employees in Philly.

Keep in mind one thing: Cops and Firemen can’t strike. We have binding arbitration governed by state law. We accept this even though the P.I.C.A. law fundamentally gutted ACT 111. Our Union presents our contract proposals to the arbitrators and then the city presents theirs. It’s supposed to be a civilized give and take that allows for the continuation of service when the two sides have an impasse. Times like now. We always work past the contract deadline. That’s the way the city has always operated and we have always gone along with it. Negotiations drag out over a couple of months and the award is back dated. ALWAYS. Except this year.

Last year, the Nutter administration begged the municipal unions for a ONE YEAR award so they could get their fiscal house in order. Even though it costs a ton of money for us to go through the arbitration process, the Unions agreed. It was in this spirit of cooperation that we hoped to work with the new Mayor after eight years of the dismal Street administration.

Shortly thereafter, the Nutter administration closed SEVEN fire companies and the threats and intimidation hasn’t stopped since. Threats of layoffs, furloughs, wage freezes, personnel cutbacks, administrative shenanigans, benefit decimation, you name it – they have threatened it. As firefighters, we just have to take it since we can’t strike. All the while City Council and other bureaucrats get RAISES!

By law, Philadelphia city employees must live in the city or they are fired. It costs a lot of money to live and raise a family here. (It’s crazy expensive.) None of us are rich. We go to work day in and day out just trying to make ends meet, raise our kids and do the best we can for our families. We stay here despite bad schools, violent crime, corrupt politicians, inept leadership, crumbling infrastructure, crushing taxes, emergency services taxed to the breaking point and a football team that will never win the big one. We endure all of this because this is our home.

But there comes a breaking point. We deserve a fair contract and the respect of this administration for all we do to keep this city and its inhabitants safe. For example, the recent “Welcome America” July 4th celebration went off again without a hitch because of the tireless work of Philly’s Police/Fire personnel.

Isn’t it enough that we have to risk our lives day in and day out? Now we have to worry about not having enough manpower, or if our pay and benefits will still be there. Nothing like those distractions while your on the roof or in the hallway of a burning building, or in a gunfight with a maniac.

Why is it that the City of Philadelphia is in a CONSTANT STATE OF FISCAL MELTDOWN? This new financial debacle is just another in a long list of crashes. They NEVER manage the taxpayers’ money with an ounce of discipline.

Now, once again the Nutter administration plays politics with the lives of this city’s firefighters. I only pray we all make it through this one alive.