Notes from the November 22, 2005 meeting...
NOTE: The numbers contained at the bottom of this page are 'representative' of potential future earnings and losses...
If I may, I’d like to pass along some of my impressions of the most recent Firefighter, Firefighter/Paramedic and Fire Lieutenants contract negotiations meeting (the 26th in a series), of November 23, 2005.
These things are rarely, “winner take all.” And it’s hard enough identifying the winner! While we’ve certainly made some inroads during the last 631 days of negotiations, our job is far from complete. If you were one of the one’s helping to fill the room on Wednesday morning – then afternoon, you witnessed one of our greatest performances in the game of tug-o-war. The city’s negotiator, Karen Richardson, started out of the blocks by informing us that she wasn’t going to waste her time by placing the first pay proposal on the table without first broaching the many contract articles that were yet to be settled upon. “What a surprise… taking hostages at 10 in the morning!”
Winnie opened up his notebook and began to go through the articles, where we could find common ground or at least agree to disagree. We signed-off on nearly everything that had previously lain in the way, but that’s not to say that we won all that we had signed-off on. If you’ll remember at our last meeting, we left the table with the city offering to pay us an amount equal to a 3% pay raise for the year in arrears. We countered with a 5% offer and were told that the city was not interested in funding past the groundskeeper level of pay! Today’s meeting wasn’t too much different. Karen started the ball rolling by breaking new ground. She offered us a whopping 4% payout, with no rollup! “No rollup?” Yup… that means that we’d receive a 4% payout that counts as contributing to our wallet and our pension, but the top pay figure from our existing pay plan remains unchanged by the 4%! To wit – unless we could come to some agreement on this very figure, the city wasn’t prepared to move forward with a discussion on the merits of a future three year contract. Wow… crappy position, huh?
Back and forth, back and forth… but essentially our position was unchanged. I’m working extemporaneously here, but if I’m not mistaken on the first set of figures, Karen offered a three year pay proposal of 4%, 4%, and 5%, totaling 13% overall (I may be off by .5% somewhere). We later countered with 5%, 5%, and 5%. After caucusing and then returning to the table, Karen held the line at 4% with no rollup for the one year deal, but increasing the percentages for the three year package to 4.0%, 5.0% and 5.0%, totaling 14.0% overall.
Concerning the one year contract proposal; two crucial questions were asked at this juncture… “is this the best offer that you are authorized to offer” and is this the best final offer?” Karen answered affirmatively to both questions! When it came to the three year offer, a little more sunshine shone through. The same questions were asked of Karen, but this time we found out that this was not the city’s best and final offer – but that she was authorized to offer no more than she’d placed on the table at the time.
Given the fact that we couldn’t move to the three year proposal without acting on the one year deal, Winnie decided to bite on the one year proposal – the 4% payout-no rollup offer.
What's left to do? Well, we have to hold a couple of meeting to avail the entire membership of needed information... then, a vote to either ratify or turn down the contract proposal.
Vote it up - take a single payout for the lost year, that has an effect on your pension, but doesn't contribute to the growth of future pay plans.
Vote it down - We'd no-doubt take our case to Council unless the city made us a last ditch offer.
~~~
Here's my extrapolation of the numbers using the proposed percentages using $50,000 as the benchmark salary...
$50,000 X 4% = $2,000 One time payout for the lost year (does not rollup into future salary calculations)
$2,000 Gain
$52,000 Net
Does not add to the figures below...
$50,000 X 4% = $2,000 Annual salary increase - first year of three year contract
$ 2,000 Gain
$52,000 Net
$52,000 X 4% = $2,080 Annual salary increase - second year of three year contract
$ 2,080 Gain
$54,080 Net
$54,080 X 5% = $2,704 Annual salary increase - third year of three year contract
$ 2,704 Gain
$56,784 Net
$ 6,784 Overall Improvement
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In the next series of figures, you'll see the difference that exists when the lost year is allowed to rollup into the years following...
$50,000 X 4% = $2,000 One time payout for the lost year (rolls up into future salary calculations)
$ 2,000 Gain
$52,000 Net
Adds to the figures below...
$52,000 X 4% = $2,080 Annual Salary increase - first year of three year contract
$ 2,080 Gain
$54,080 Net
$54,080 X 4% = $2,163.20 Annual salary increase - second year of three year contract
$ 2,163.20 Gain
$56,243.20 Net
$56,243.20 X 5% = $2,812.16 Annual salary increase - third year of three year contract
$ 2,812.20 Gain
$59,055.36 Net
$ 9,055.36 Overall Improvement
$59,055.36
- $56,784.00
$ 2,271.36 Loss realized by disallowing lost year rollup
