Layoff, demotion notices sent out for Jacksonville firefighters

[Patricia M. McBride]

Union head gears up for more bargaining; city says it’s not budging.

Posted: September 27, 2010 - 12:26am

By Matt Soergel

Andy Miska got a call Saturday evening to report to Jacksonville fire headquarters in the morning. He knew what was coming.

He woke up Sunday, went downtown at the beginning of his shift, read over the paperwork handed to him, then signed his name to it.

It’s official: As of Oct. 12, he’ll be demoted from engineer to firefighter. At headquarters, Miska, who is based at Station 5 on Forest Street, asked when he’d get promoted again. No one had an answer.

Not a great way to start the workday. “It’s reality, I guess,” Miska said, 31, a graduate of Bishop Kenny High School who’s been a member of the department for five years. “It’s not fun at all.”

After the Jacksonville fire union last week rejected a contract struck by union leaders, Miska learned he’ll be one of 23 people demoted, effective Oct. 12. Another 15 firefighters — all in their first year — will be laid off.

Fire union President Randy Wyse said the union will take a new approach to negotiations when it goes back to the collective bargaining table with the city. He wouldn’t say yet what that new tack will be.

“Give us a couple of days,” Wyse said. “You’ll know it when you see it. The members have spoken — this is what we want to do, and this is what I want to do. It will be glaringly obvious.”

The city, however, will not budge, said Misty Skipper, spokeswoman for Mayor John Peyton.

“We’re not going to offer anything better than what was on the table before,” she said. “It’s hard to see a path where we can reach an agreement.”

If one of the two sides declares an impasse, the negotiations will go to a magistrate.

Skipper said the city’s position will be what it initially offered the union: pay cuts of 3 percent, employees paying 10 percent of personal health costs and the freezing of tenure-based raises.

About 53 percent of fire union members turned down a deal made by union leaders that would have had 2 percent pay cuts, with no layoffs for at least a year.

Voting, which ended Friday, was close, with the deal falling short by just 70 votes. The union has about 1,200 members.

That showed what a tough decision it was for firefighters, said Lt. Skip Smith of Station 58 on Joeandy Road.

“I had to do what was right, not what I wanted to do,” he said. “I won’t tell you what it was, but it was in all honesty a hard decision to make.”

Smith said the laid-off rookie firefighters have been especially unfairly treated.

“The city knew this was coming up a year or so ago. They went ahead and hired these people, got them out in the flock, and we embraced them,” Smith said. “Then they held them us against us when it came time to negotiate the contract. It’s unfair.”

[e-mail], [phone]

link: http://jacksonville.com/news/metro/2010-09-27/story/layoff-demotion...