Firefighters Union-City Contract Negotiations Fail, Impasse Hearing Set for Next Week

On any given day they put their lives on the line and come to the aid of Dixon residents during fires, auto accidents and assorted medical emergencies and now Dixon firefighters are asking for some support in return.

The 15 members of Dixon Professional Firefighters Association Local 4665 union have put a call out to the community to come out and show support during an impasse hearing scheduled for Wednesday, Aug. 10, 6 p.m., inside the chambers of the

Contract negotiations between the city and the union have failed, leaving an impasse. At the special meeting, the Dixon City Council will hear from the city staff and also from union representatives and will decide whether or not to impose a one-year contract on DPFA members. The imposed contract is not one that DPFA membership has agreed upon said Dixon Fire Capt. Dean Sarley, who is the DPFA’s vice president.

“What they are going to impose is a straight 8 percent salary reduction,” Sarley said. “This one will be a straight salary reduction, 25 percent of our medical benefits will be gone. And it will be a one-year deal.”

The imposed contract contains concessions that members of the union find difficult to make considering some of the past concessions that have been made Sarley said.

Back in January, the city’s negotiation team – comprised of then-City Manager Nancy Huston, Human Resources Director Steve Johnson, City Attorney Michael Dean and attorney Eddie Kreisberg  – and the DPFA began negotiating an Memorandum of Understanding, which is essentially an employment contract.

The negotiations failed, however, forcing an impasse hearing set for Wednesday, Aug. 10.

“We are still hoping that we can still resolve (this) … nobody wants to go through an impasse process,” said Dixon Police Chief Jon Cox, who is the interim city manager. “It’s not an easy process there are a number of ways to get to a certain cost savings that the city is trying to realize. How they get there is the biggest question.”

Cox said that the city appreciates all of its employees and he recognizes the important services that the members of the DPFA provide to the city.

“It’s tough times,” he said. “ These are people's personal lives and their family support. It’s just a very difficult time for everybody involved. Personally, I just hope for the very best outcome. Our city staff … they are all critical in providing good government services. I really value the job that our fire department is doing.”

Cox said the impasse revolves around salaries, benefits through retirement contributions, pay incentives for education and longevity.

“It’s not an easy answer,” Cox said.  “I think there is a variety of things that are being discussed and as our days go by … we are still hoping there can be some resolution.”

Sarley said the biggest concession that’s being asked of the union is the 8 percent reduction in salary. Sarley pointed out Dixon’s firefighters have done everything they can to assist the city during tough economic times. He said that while the city imposed mandatory furloughs on its staff, during Fiscal Year 2009-2010, the union voted to take the furlough as a 4.6 percent reduction in pay in order to maintain the same level of service to the city.

“If we take a day off of work that leaves us short of a body and we are already three people down,” Sarley said. “We would take a furlough in a pay cut instead of taking bodies off the street. There are other implications. If we were to go down to four (firefighters) there is possibility of the mutual aid that we receive from Vacaville and the auto aid that we receive from Davis (being impacted). There’s no way if we were down to four guys, there is no way that we can end up vacating our city to cover another city…

“In the '09 negotiations, we were told by the manager that the city is going to be in some dire financial straits. We realized that we already did our homework and we were being paid 35 percent below the medium (pay range) but understood that the city was facing some hard times.  We went in there with concessions on our minds. We ended up giving a 9.2 percent concession to the city. There are only 15 of us and we are getting beaten up pretty hard. We almost took a 5 percent pay cut for the furlough and a 9.2 percent concession for the negotiation.”

Sarley said his union is aware that concession must be made, but said that the 15-member group is baring the brunt of those concessions and said that the city signed three contracts with labor unions working for the city in which no reduction in pay was instituted.

“How can you justify taking all this money from 15 guys and not touching anyone else in the city?” Sarley said.

The members of Local 4665 proposed a contract to the city negotiation team that included:

• A salary increase of 5 percent
• Reinstatment of FLSA Overtime
• Reinstatement of time off as hours worked
• Increase City PERS Contribution
• Raise the Comp time cap back to 144 hours
• Reinstate compensatory time instead of overtime

According to the union, the city rejected each of those terms and instead countered with two proposals. The first proposal called for a one-year deal with an 8-percent reduction in base pay, a 3.9-percent over the cap payment of PERS and a 25-percent reduction of the Medical Benefit Allowance cash out. The second proposal was a two-year contract that called for a 5-percent salary reduction each year, a 25-percent reduction in the MBA cash out each year and the over the cap PERS payments.

When the union rejected the second proposal and offered to accept the first without the pay decrease, the city initiated the impasse procedure, according to the union.

Once the impasse was declared, the union countered with a two-year contract in which the first year would see a 3-percent reduction in the educational incentive, increase of the city’s PERS contribution by 3.8-percent and employees would have the MBA cash out reduced by 25 percent.

The second year of the contract would call for a 4-percent reduction in the educational incentive, eliminating it entirely the union said, and further reduction of the MBA cash out by an additional 25 percent.

It’s a contract that the union said would save the city $189,600 and result in the firefighters seeing $12,640 less per year.

In a statement, the union wrote: “The Dixon Professional Firefighters Association membership understands the hardships that are affecting the City of Dixon, the state, and the nation. We understand that good workers all over the nation have had their pay reduced and have even lost their jobs. It is certainly not our stance that we should not be taking our fair share of the economic burden of the city. That said the DPFA has already taken a significant reduction in pay and benefits in previous negotiations.”

Sarley said the impasse has nothing to do with Dixon residents, but said that the union would be appreciative if they came out to show some support and speak during next Wednesday’s special meeting. The meeting will be held inside the chambers of the Dixon City Council, 600 East A Street, at 6 p.m.

See the full statement issued by the DPFA attached to this story. Visit their Facebook page for more information.

Visit the Dixon Professional Firefighters Assocation's web site here.

<<For updates on this and many other stories we publish, please visit and ‘like’ our Facebook Page and follow us on Twitter Feed>>

Editors Note: an earlier version of this story stated the wrong day for the impasse hearing. The hearing is set for Wednesday, Aug. 10.