The LVRJ Has It Right About The CCFD

From The LVRJ: The next time you're haggling over the price of a used car, don't be tempted to call for assistance from that crack team of negotiators in upper management at the red stone Clark County Government Center. You'll end up paying Blue Book and more.
After two months of tough talk with the county firefighters union, all the management team could manage to extract was a measly 1.5 percent wage cut and the reduction of one vacation day and one sick day.
Let's see, in 2009, about 40 percent of county firefighters, who work 24-hour shifts, called in sick 10 times, the number of shifts worked in a month. A dozen missed more than 30 shifts, or three months.
Oh yes, the current 741 firefighters who are paid an average of $180,000 a year with perks and overtime did generously concede to cut the pay of future rookie firefighters by 5 percent. The total savings to the county is $4.2 million a year. Not much of a dent in a $100 million projected county budget shortfall.
The Review-Journal's account of the one-year firefighter contract quoted a statement released by Ryan Beaman, president of the International Association of Firefighters Local 1908, saying, "We face the same financial challenges as any other city or county government. Both sides had a common interest. We were able to have meaningful and productive discussions to get this done."
Translation: We put one over on these fools, didn't we?
http://www.lvrj.com/opinion/firefighter-deal-121433619.html#blogcomments?submitted=y
This is the best Clark County commissioners can come up with?
First, it's nice that the rookie firefighters will be making 5% less, but in reality, CCFD doesn't hire many rookies, especially lately, so this savings is about $0
A 1.5% pay cut for everyone else? And yet teachers are expected to take a 5% pay cut plus pay more in insurance and retirement. Are the firefighters being asked to do that? Umm, no. Are they cutting back on the different ways firefighters can build up their salaries with doing very little work. Like being a paramedic even if you don't do paramedic jobs in the field. Nope.
Are the firefighters asked to take a furlough day or two like other county employees? Nope.
For some reason, the County commissioners and management are still treating firefighters with kid gloves. Even after it has been shown that many County firefighters have been gaming the system by collecting hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars off of bogus sick time and work rule abuse, the Clark County management still doesn't want to pick a fight with the union and put them in their place, which is getting a reasonable salary for firefighters.
If you become a CCFD firefighter, you don't need a college degree. It is a job that over a million people in the United States do every day for very little if any money. You don't even need great skills to be a firefighter, unless you are in the highly technical areas of firefighting, which most firefighters are not. Firefighting in 2011 is not like firefighting in 1980. It's a lot easier and far less dangerous.
As the editorial suggests, the Clark County commissioners need to reject this contract and go back to the bargaining table and actually do some work and come up with a contract that is good for the taxpayer and not the CCFD.