Fifteen rookie firefighters will lose their jobs after the Jacksonville fire union rejected a contract with a 2 percent pay cut that guaranteed no layoffs for at least a year.

About 53 percent of the members voted against the deal, which union leaders struck in July in order to save the department from layoffs and demotions set to kick in the next day.

Now, since the firefighters turned the contract down, Mayor John Peyton is ordering the layoffs and demotions to begin today.

The deal fell about 70 votes short after three days of voting concluded Friday.

Starting this morning, 23 people will be demoted. Those employees simply move down a rank and those cuts eventually trickle down to the 15 who will be laid off, Peyton spokeswoman Misty Skipper said.

The City Council will have to approve a budget next week without a deal in place with either of the powerful public safety unions.

Peyton said he won’t offer a better deal to the firefighters and expects the new talks to go to impasse, which will likely take months before the council is tasked with cutting the final deal.

Because the budget headed to the council next week includes the firefighters taking pay cuts and picking up those health insurance premiums, the city will have to find more cuts — between $1 million and $2 million, Skipper said. She did not know when those decisions would be finalized.

Fire union President Randy Wyse blamed the vote on Peyton’s office for “spending money like it’s going out of style” and making statements Wyse said were taken as threats to the union members. Peyton said it was the union leadership’s job to sell the deal, and they didn’t get it done.

“I’m sorry for the fire union membership that picked a road with short-term popularity, but long-term expenses,” Peyton said.

Wyse said, in talking to members, the decision was more against Peyton himself than it was the deal on the table.

“They’re continuing to spend money when they say there is no money,” Wyse said.

Wyse said examples include the city waiving its $4 million share of the EverBank Field naming rights deal with the Jacksonville Jaguars and Peyton telling a political group this spring to be careful of future mayoral candidates with the backing of public safety unions.

The deal the union rejected included 2 percent pay cuts that would be restored in 2012 and employees assuming 5 percent of personal health insurance premiums. City employees already pay for family health coverage.

The first city proposal was 3 percent pay cuts, employees paying 10 percent of personal health costs and freezing tenure-based raises.

The city will go back to that proposal when the two sides meet again, though no date has been set.

That brings into question whether anything will be decided before Peyton leaves office next June. The city and police union went to impasse in April and a magistrate hearing is now scheduled for mid-December. If it takes that long with the fire union, Peyton’s successor will have already been chosen.

Local police union President Nelson Cuba has long said he couldn’t agree to a pay cut unless the city cut back more in other areas. Cuba said Friday evening that’s likely what turned the fire vote as well.

Now, both unions, with a combined 3,500 members, are in similar positions.

“We all agree on one thing: Unless the city stops its wasteful spending, we cannot agree to pay cuts,” Cuba said.

The fire union was the pioneer on the 2-percent deal, and three other city unions took the same contract. All three ratified the contract and the council is expected to approve them Tuesday.

Peyton said the city will continue to move forward in trying to reduce employee-related expenses, primarily through pay cuts and pension reform.

The Police and Fire Pension fund agreed this month to looking at significant changes for new employees, including increasing the years of service needed to retire and changing the deferred retirement plan. Those changes would save the city between $700 million and $800 million over 35 years.

matt.galnor@jacksonville.com, (904) 359-4550

link: http://jacksonville.com/news/metro/2010-09-24/story/jacksonville-fi...