Today’s Times-Pic: Council Backs Firefighter Raises
Ummm…not exactly. It’s a nice attention-grabbing headline but not exactly accurate. What they actually did was *approve pay raises* for “nearly every position classification to increase their compensation rate to the Southern regional average” that specifically *excludes* our firefighters.
The city council meeting was held yesterday before a council chamber packed with demoralized firefighters joined by union chief Nick Felton and Fire Superintendent Charles Parent. Felton and Parent have gone to battle with the city over and over again for their men and women. Their words to the council:
Parent called his workers’ exclusion from the latest city raises “a severe blow to morale” in his department, and firefighters union chief Nick Felton blasted what he called Nagin’s “mean-spiritedness.”
“Why do we have to be treated like orphaned stepchildren?” Felton asked the Budget Committee. “Why do we have to be spit upon?”
Members of the council have stated their intention to “approve a resolution saying the pay of all city workers including firefighters should be brought up to the Southern average without delay and regardless of any litigation.” The full council is expected to vote on it July 10.
We were hoping that the council wouldn’t approve the raises at all yesterday unless or until the NOFD was included.
I want to post a shout-out to Bayou St. John David for getting behind the cause on his blog in addition to putting his great analytical skills to work on the so-called “southern regional averages”. Stay tuned there for more.
Starting today and every Friday until our firefighters get that raise I will be posting NoLA firefighting videos to keep this issue on the front burner (ouch!) and to honor New Orleans best and bravest.
I confess I hope everyone who reads this blog will actually watch the videos to remind themselves why this is such an important local issue. Because they put their lives on the line everyday for US. This is the real world, people.
The first video is a group of newbies telling why they joined the NOFD *after* Katrina and the second one is a photographic essay of Ladder 11 at work for YOU. Enjoy.
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By: NOFD FRIDAY Video on June 27, 2008
at 4:49 pm
Sorry I didn’t comment on this sooner, been meaning to for a while. I don’t want to imply that city workers are overpaid, although some certainly underperform. Funny, firemen really don’t have the “when I finish my personal call” option. But from my experience looking at different library systems and college libraries, comparing by job title is pointless, and Orleans parish doesn’t have the lower-ranked titles.
If it weren’t for excluding the firefighters, this pay raise wouldn’t bother me all that much , but I would point out the misleading comparison. As far as I can tell, it’s not like two years ago when the six figure execs were included. Of course, both proposals seemed to be designed to punish the firefighters.
By: bayoustjohndavid on July 23, 2008
at 7:33 am