A new 3 1/2-year contract for the Hollister Firefighters Union
that includes a 17-percent pay increase over four years will likely
be approved at tonight’s City Council meeting.
While city officials called the contract
”
fair,
”
union officials made a point that firefighters were
”
settling
”
because of a stale economy and public anxiety over a possible
war.
A new 3 1/2-year contract for the Hollister Firefighters Union that includes a 17-percent pay increase over four years will likely be approved at tonight’s City Council meeting.
While city officials called the contract “fair,” union officials made a point that firefighters were “settling” because of a stale economy and public anxiety over a possible war.
The contract – which would retroactively take effect Jan. 11 – includes increases of 7 percent in 2003, 4 percent in 2004, 4 percent in 2005 and 2 percent in 2006. Firefighters will also receive additional cost-of-living adjustments each year of a minimum of 1.5 percent and a maximum of 2.5 percent.
City officials said the new deal puts the HFD in the “middle of the pack” compared to other Central Coast departments.
“We have gone through and made salary adjustments to keep us in line with other local communities,” said Clay Lee, Hollister’s director of management services.
The salary structure was broken down into three positions – firefighters, fire engineers and fire captains. Under the previous contract, firefighters earned $40,960 to $52,276, fire engineers earned $45,245 to $57,745 and fire captains earned $49,979 to $63,787.
Lee called the pay raises a “fairly significant increase” and acknowledged residents may express concern over the 7 percent raise because of current budget shortfalls.
“But people should also remember that public safety is a very important issue in our community,” he said. “We want to maintain the staff we’ve trained and they should be compensated for the work they do.”
HFU President Bob Del Campo said the union did not view the increases in the same vein as the city.
The contract still leaves Hollister firefighters’ salaries 4 to 9 percent behind those in Gilroy and Watsonville, said Del Campo, who made a point that the HFD lost five firefighters in the past few years to higher salaries elsewhere.
The HFD received a larger raise in its previous contract negotiated in 1999, which included a 25.5 percent pay increase over four years and a higher COLA ceiling of 6 percent.
“We went ahead and accepted this,” Del Campo said. “We would have been happy with more.”
Both sides said negotiations, which lasted about six months, were complicated by budget problems. Considering the fiscally unsettling times, Lee said the firefighters received a fair deal.
Del Campo said if negotiations had begun six months earlier (than Aug. 9), firefighters would have received a higher pay raise.
“With the way the economy is going and the situation with the nation, we went ahead and accepted this,” he said.
Fire Chief Bill Garringer said he was happy that negotiations are finished.
“I’m glad they have a contract,” he said. “Nobody likes to see negotiations drag on forever. It’s nice to see them come to an agreement this quickly.”
Council discussed the HFD contract in closed session Feb. 10 and is expected to approve the deal tonight, Lee said. Councilman Tony LoBue said Council considered the budget problems when discussing the firefighters’ contract – including Gov. Gray Davis’ decision to cut a significant amount of state funding to local jurisdictions.
“The governor basically destroyed the state’s budget,” LoBue said.
The two sides had also disagreed over the length of the contract. The city preferred a longer-term deal than the firefighters union, which initially bargained for less than two years. But after consulting with attorneys, the union decided the longer deal would offer security if the economy continued to decline. And both sides agreed a longer contract equated to more time before going through negotiations again.
“We like to push it (negotiations) out as far as we can so we don’t have to deal with it every year,” Lee said.
