By Christian M. Wade
The Tampa Tribune
TAMPA, Fla. — The city’s firefighters narrowly rejected a two-year contract with Tampa that included no cost-of-living raises through the end of fiscal year 2013.
Tampa firefighters, who have been voting on the proposed contract for the past week, turned it down by a tally of 149 in favor of the contract and 192 against, said Jace Kohan, secretary and treasurer for the International Association of Firefighters Local 754, which represents city firefighters.
Earlier Tuesday, Mayor Bob Buckhorn had expressed confidence that firefighters would agree to the terms of the contract, hammered out in face-to-face meetings between the mayor, his senior administrators and union representatives during the past four months.
“Given the city’s fiscal realities, I think these are good contracts, and I’m hopeful that the membership of all three unions will agree to approve it,” Buckhorn said.
Kohan said union negotiators agreed to forgo cost-of-living raises in the contract in exchange for keeping so-called step plan increases in place for about 300 firefighters who qualified for increased tuition reimbursement and other concessions.
He wouldn’t speculate on why the union’s membership rejected the agreement.
“We’ll go back to the bargaining table and try to figure out a way forward,” he said.
If both sides can’t work out a deal, it could result in an impasse that would go to mediation and possibly to the city council to decide, as has happened in previous years.
Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1464, which represents the city’s blue-collar and clerical workers, will vote on a proposed contract on Nov. 8, and members of the Tampa Police Benevolent Association, representing police, will vote on Nov. 16 and 17.
Going into the current fiscal year, Tampa faced a projected $34.5 million shortfall, a deficit caused in part by declining property tax revenue. Despite that, officials balanced the fiscal year 2012 budget without laying off workers, raising property taxes or cutting services.
Former Mayor Pam Iorio, who faced similar budget challenges, froze cost-of-living and step/merit plans in fiscal year 2010, prompting an unfair labor practices lawsuit by the police union and impasses with the other unions. She reinstated step plans, which are awarded to police and firefighters as they rise through the ranks, during her final year in office.
Following up on a campaign pledge, Buckhorn kept the plans in place and budgeted $2.4 million for pay increases in the current fiscal year. Under the terms of the tentative contracts, the city would be obligated to budget a similar amount in fiscal year 2013.
The mayor has backed away from a move to eliminate longevity bonuses and scale back accrued sick pay for new hires, which cost the city a combined $6.1 million annually.
“We discussed it but mutually agreed that it wasn’t going to pass,” Buckhorn said.
In September, Buckhorn issued executive orders eliminating longevity bonuses for managerial and supervisory employees, who are not unionized, and cutting in half the amount of sick pay those employees can collect when they retire.
In a concession to police and fire unions, Buckhorn drafted a bill for consideration in the next legislative session that would, if approved, retroactively increase benefits for families of police and firefighters killed in the line of duty to 65 percent of annual take-home pay at the time of the employees’ passing. Currently, the city pays 50 percent.
The city also agreed to boost tuition reimbursement for police officers and firefighters pursuing additional training and advanced degrees to $2,000, up from $1,700 a year.
But the biggest concession by the city appears to be the return to multiyear contracts, which all three unions were pushing for in negotiations that began in late July.
Iorio eliminated three-year contracts before the 2009 fiscal year budget, citing concerns about the chronic decline in property taxes and other funding sources.
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