Florida Union, Town Declare Impasse in Contract Negotiations

The town staff and union representatives for the town’s firefighters declared an impasse Friday in attempts to negotiate a new contract.

Union representatives said they couldn’t reach an agreement on two issues: work week and pensions.

Attorney Mark Floyd, who represents Local 2928 of the International Association of Fire Fighters, told the town’s labor attorney, Jeffrey Mandel, that the union would accept everything else in the proposed contract and wanted to “limit the scope of the impasse” to those two issues.

At the April 7 bargaining session, union representatives said firefighters want their Kelly Days restored. Kelly Days are unpaid days off every seventh shift that would reduce the work week from 56 hours to 48 hours. Kelly Days are common in fire departments in South Florida and nationwide.

Floyd asked Friday if there was any chance of getting a half — or any portion — of a Kelly Day restored.

“It isn’t,” Mandel said. “If that was an option, I would have brought it back and said, ‘Hey, let’s compromise.’~HOA~128~128~”

The union wants 15 firefighters — who worked for the town when pension cuts took effect three years ago — to have those benefits restored to what they had before the cuts took effect on May 1, 2012.

Prior to, and since the cuts took effect, public safety employees have left the town in double-digit figures, with many citing the need to seek better pensions and benefits offered elsewhere.

The next step is agreeing on a special magistrate who will listen to both sides and make recommendations. But the Town Council has the final say.

The last time the two sides went through negotiations, the town declared an impasse in June 2010. A special magistrate listened to both sides, but the Town Council rejected the magistrate’s recommendations and imposed a contract with sweeping cuts to pensions and benefits at an April 21, 2011, meeting.

In December, the two sides reached a tentative proposed contract. But the firefighters voted 22-0 in February to reject it. Thirty- five members of Palm Beach Fire-Rescue were eligible to vote.

“Local 2928 believes that it and the town have reached an impasse on the issues of retirement security and number of work hours per week,” Floyd said in a statement. “While Local 2928 remains willing to bargain, it is clear the parties are presently at a stalemate. The town has decimated its retirement benefits to the point that the town is not competitive with local fire-rescue departments. While the town offers a competitive annual salary, the town requires its firefighters to work 56 hours per week to earn that annual salary. Other local fire-rescue departments require 48 hours per week. The difference in hours worked makes the Town’s hourly pay rate pale in comparison.

“Through these actions, the town has turned its Fire Rescue Department into a training ground where firefighters are hired by the town, work for a couple years, and then leave for other local departments that have meaningful retirement benefits and a better work schedule. This creates a potentially dangerous, long term problem for the safety of the firefighters and the public. … The only way to stem the outward flow of firefighters and eventually restore the town’s fire rescue department to its former prestige is for the town to again offer competitive benefits and establish work hours more in line with the norm in our area.

“We hope that we can accomplish this through the impasse resolution procedure which may culminate with the Town Council making a final decision in the best interest of the public and its firefighters.”

— mdargan@pbdailynews.com Twitter: @MicheleDargan