Premium ContentMouse over Home then click on Premium Content for information.Byron Johnson says he and his fellow Omaha firefighters encounter people "during the worst times of their lives."
Fire crews go into homes during blazes and medical emergencies, earning their benefits and compensation, Johnson said Tuesday at a public hearing on the city's proposed fire contract.
Former State Sen. Mike Friend of Omaha said he knows firsthand that firefighters save lives — they arrived in under three minutes when his then-newborn son stopped breathing years ago.
But he said their pay and benefits are too generous.
"I know these guys are good. I get it," said Friend, now director of the Nebraska chapter of Americans for Prosperity, a conservative group that promotes limited government and free markets. "But I also get . . . there is a fiduciary responsibility to taxpayers."
Such was the back-and-forth during the public hearing on the controversial labor agreement with the Omaha firefighters union.
A dozen people spoke in favor of the contract and a dozen spoke against it in a hearing that lasted more than 2½ hours and stretched into the early evening.
The four-year contract includes wage freezes for 2010 and the first half of 2011. Pay raises for the last half of this year, and likely for all of 2012 and 2013, would be included.
Mayor Jim Suttle announced the deal in May, the day before a law was passed overhauling the state's labor court, the Commission of Industrial Relations. The commission settles labor disputes between governments and unions.
For decades, the CIR has settled wage disputes by looking only at pay scales for the same work in other Midwestern cities. Now the CIR also will consider health benefits and pensions.
The new law takes effect in October, and some council members and Fire Department critics argue that Omaha would be better off going before the commission under the new rules.
Councilwoman Jean Stothert has said the city should hold off until October. Her comments Tuesday were no different.
"We really don't know until we go there," she said of the new CIR rules. "People need to understand that when there's savings, there's costs. And there are great costs with this contract."
Union President Steve LeClair said firefighters "have given up more than they thought they should have" in the deal.
"This contract is not a wish list. It's a compromise. . . from years of negotiations with the city," LeClair said.
Union members ratified the agreement in a vote last week.
The Omaha Alliance for the Private Sector says firefighters should take deeper benefit cuts and put more money into the troubled police and fire pension plan. The group of Omaha businesspeople acknowledged that the proposal saves the city money compared to the current contract.
But the group questioned whether the city got the best deal it could.
"Best deal compared to what?" said Chip Maxwell, executive director of the Omaha Alliance. "In recent history, we've had one of the worst deals in the country."
To illustrate its point, the group laid out three stacks of fake money to represent average employer retirement contributions.
A small stack of bills represented contributions by private sector employers — about 3 percent of an employee's salary.
A second pile represented contributions by state government for its employees — about 10 percent of pay.
A third pile, the largest, represented the contributions the City of Omaha makes to the police and fire pension system — about 33 percent under the proposed deal. Much of that contribution would go to help shore up the pension system's long-term obligations.
Pat Barrett, the city's outside labor counsel, said much of the criticism of the contract stems from a lack of understanding of labor laws and from unrealistic expectations.
Maxwell's group gave council members a list of 10 changes it would make to the contract.
"No negotiations ever result in getting everything you want on either side," Barrett said.
However, he said, he hoped the fire contract represented a solid first step toward getting the city an even more beneficial labor agreement in the future.
Contact the writer:
402-444-3100, maggie.obrien@owh.com
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