ABC27 WHTM Harrisburg unions react to contract renegotiation plans

Harrisburg unions react to contract renegotiation plans

The man appointed by Gov. Tom Corbett to assist Harrisburg in its financial crisis has said major changes need to be made to the contracts of the city's union employees.

International Association of Fire Fighters Local 428 is one of three labor unions representing city workers who will have to dig deep and make concessions.

"We presented them with, in our view, a pretty significant cost savings proposal," Local 428 president Eric Jenkins said. "They have it. They are doing their due diligence. We're just waiting for them to get back to us to see where we live."

In his plan for Harrisburg's recovery, receiver David Unkovic said workforce cost control is "essential to the City of Harrisburg's survival."

Without it, he said, the city "will eventually have to make dramatic workforce reductions that will limits its ability to provide the most basic municipal services."

There are 382 city employees represented by the three unions. One issue under review is manpower and the high cost of overtime.

Jenkins said firefighters are not at fault for their overtime.

"Our manpower numbers are lower than they have ever been," he said. "The overtime issues is not created by the firefighters, it was created by management, years ago, and continued through this administration."

Local 428 is proposing more manpower to combat the rising cost of overtime.

"Our priority is safety. Period. End of story. Case closed," Jenkins said. "I am pretty much getting worn out with people in the decision making capacity who have no clue what safety is about."

City police want to make sure older officers don't lose out on their retirements.

"What we don't want to see happen is basically the rug pulled out from under the officers that have been here, made their commitments 20, 25, 30 years, and now all of a sudden at the end of their careers, everything that was promised to them is taken away," said Detective Jason Brinker, President of the local Fraternal Order of Police.

Representatives for police and firefighters believe Unkovic has a good grasp on what they need; something that has been lacking in the past.

"We're crawling through these houses, we are pulling bodies out of these houses, we are saving people's lives while these people, other people, sit in offices and make these decisions with these grandiose good ideas while they have no idea about the logistics involved with this," said Jenkins.