That would suck.
A day after City Council members were assured that New Orleans firefighters would receive long-overdue raises in their pay packages Friday, the leader of the firefighters union said many of his members actually received less money than in the past.Hey, man, don’t blame City Hall. Their abaci* work just fine:
"It's an event of historic proportions," said Nick Felton, president of Fire Fighters Association Local 632. "It's the first time in the history of New Orleans that city employees got a pay increase and lost money."
Chief Deputy City Attorney Joseph DiRosa Jr., the city's chief negotiator in the long-running firefighter pay dispute, said that despite the union's allegations, he was "absolutely confident" that all firefighters' pay had been calculated correctly.*Abaci or abacuses?
***
DiRosa said that because paying the state-mandated longevity raises involved a switch from city to state longevity rules, it was possible that some firefighters did wind up making less money than before, even when a 10 percent raise was included.
4 comments:
It's freakin' crazy...my friend's husband, who is a captain, received approx 2.00 less an hour on this check. And the excuse of a computer glitch is rediculous....do they really think people believe that? Our ff put their lives on the line everyday and this is the (continued) treatment they get from the city. I say put Nagin and DiRosa in one of those Fema trailers or damaged houses with no heat, no computers, even no toilet paper....let them respond to a few fires and put their lives in jeapardy. Bet things would improve mightily in a hurry.
He's stretching those dollars, remember. The city council voted to include the people he didn't want included in the pay raises (the firefighters' union endorsed Landrieu), so Nagin just refigured their pay scale. I guess he learned another lesson from Bush, the one about ignoring parts of legislation that he didn't like.
I'm still incensed over the council's handling of (and the paper's coverage of) the whole pay raise issue. The mayor came up with a plan to give every city employee, even those making six figures, a 10% raise, but left out firefighters for obviously petty political reasons. Rather than look at where raises were needed, either because of staffing problems or abyssmal pay, the city council voted to include everybody. The administration actually had the gall to say we could afford it for everyone but the firefighters; when it passed anyway, the administration pulls this garbage.
Right on, BSJD....
I'm appalled that more New Orleanians aren't appalled by what's going on here. It's obvious Nagin is playing pay-back for the union supporting Landrieu.
As for the pay raise calculations, it's so f***ed up....Monday will find them all back in court.
"*Abaci or abacuses?"
I think the real question as far as suffixes go is "doofi or doofuses?"
I'd call the city's handling of firefighters' pay and facilities in this town waaaay worse names and all, but I'm just so appalled at the way this town does the math.
IDIOTS...
Post a Comment