HAVERHILL — The president of the firefighters union said he offered Mayor James Fiorentini three months ago new rules to control sick time use by firefighters in exchange for a new contract.
But the mayor "threw it back in my face," union President Tyler Kimball told the City Council last night.
Kimball was at the meeting to respond to information released by Fiorentini showing that firefighters used more sick days on average last year than other city workers.
Kimball and eight other firefighters attended the meeting to demonstrate their anger at being singled out. At one point, City Council President Michael Hart had to ask Kimball not to use profanity while addressing the council.
Kimball said Fiorentini doesn't want firefighters to have a new contract because he likes to see the department in chaos.
"Two years without a contract is ludicrous," Kimball said, noting that Fiorentini canceled a bargaining session scheduled earlier in the day.
Kimball challenged the council to push the mayor to resolve the contract dispute.
"Why are you paying $50,000 a year for a lawyer to negotiate with us?" Kimball asked the councilors.
The mayor did not attend the meeting but he released a statement after it.
"If the firefighters union would like to negotiate in the newspaper, that is just fine with me," Fiorentini said. "I urge them to make public the list of demands they made, and I release them from any promise of confidentiality."
"On the other hand, if they would like to sit down and negotiate in good faith, my door is open," the mayor said, adding that the firefighters canceled a negotiation session last week.
Fiorentini said he is willing to meet with union officials to resume negotiations, but that he "will not give in to unreasonable union demands."
"No amount of name calling and no amount of pressure from the union is ever going to get me to give in to union pressure for a contract we can not afford," the mayor said.
City Councilor David Hall put the issue on last night's agenda. He said he did so because the sick time issue is hurting Fire Department morale.
Hall said he believes sick time by firefighters can be reduced by filling several vacant positions.
"We're down seven or eight firefighters, and that means we have to bring in guys on overtime when someone calls in sick," Hall said. "Some firefighters are working 40 to 50 hours of overtime per week at one of the most stressful jobs anyone can imagine."
Hall said the city spent more than $1.4 million on overtime for firefighters last year.
Hall said the mayor prefers to pay overtime because it is cheaper than hiring new firefighters.
"In the short-term, he might be right," Hall said. "But in the long-term I say he isn't right because it's burning them out."
According to the mayor's sick-time figures, 101 firefighters were out 1,099 days last year, or an average of 10.8 per employee, not including sick bank or Family Medical Leave Act time. When those reasons for missing work are included, the information shows firefighters used 1,172 sick days in 2007, compared with 898 in 2006 and 801 in 2005.
At the council meeting, the mayor's aide, Andrew Herlihy, said the figures released last week were not meant to single out any department or workers.
"The (sick time) numbers are part of performance-based measures in government," Herlihy said. "We've been addressing this for a while. The Fire Department numbers come from the Fire Department."
"The police (sick time) numbers are way down. ... The Fire Department numbers are trending upward," Herlihy said.
By comparison, 91 police officers used 611 sick days last year, or an average of 6.7 sick days per officer. The police officers used 469 sick days in 2006 and 671 sick days in 2005.
"I don't want this to be the city against the firefighters," Hall said. "We're one team. ... I visit the four firehouses during the week and believe me when I tell you morale is at the bottom. I've never seen it this low in 40 years."
