More than half of Jacksonville’s 8,000 city employees took a pay cut Friday.

Some went willingly — members of three city unions agreed to 2 percent cuts. Others, appointed workers without a union, didn’t have a choice.

Nearly all of those who won’t see changes on their next paycheck are members of the powerful public safety unions, both locked in high-stakes duels with Mayor John Peyton.

After the 1,200-member firefighter union turned down the deal with a 2 percent pay cut its leaders negotiated with Peyton’s team, 15 firefighters were laid off and another 23 demoted over the next three days.

Now, more cuts are needed to make up for the $1.7 million the city would have saved if the pay cuts went through.

Peyton has made it clear he wants some kind of salary cuts before he leaves office in June.

But the clock may be against him.

The city and fire union will sit back down on Wednesday. The city is expected to revert back to its original offer: 3 percent pay cuts, freezing tenure-based raises and having employees pay 10 percent of personal health insurance premiums.

The fire union turned down a deal that kept the raises and would have employees pick up 5 percent of the health costs.

Fire union President Randy Wyse said he looks forward to getting back to the bargaining table but would not speculate on the chances of reaching a deal again.

If the two sides don’t agree, the talks will go to impasse.

The city and Fraternal Order of Police went to impasse in April and don’t have a hearing before a magistrate set until mid-December.

Using that timeline, it would be June for the firefighters — a month after a new mayor would have already been elected.

Wyse said he couldn’t say whether he’d expect a better deal from a new mayor.

“If the mayor’s me then, yeah, guaranteed,” Wyse said. “But past that, I can’t answer that.”

The Times-Union surveyed the higher-profile candidates running to replace Peyton and, while none committed specifically to what they’d offer the fire union, most said their plan would be different than Peyton’s.

Peyton has said in the past he wants to make sure employees within the government are treated equally — quelling a long-running complaint among city workers that police officers and firefighters get special treatment.

The city has said in the past it would seek pay cuts retroactive to Friday for other unions.

Last week, Peyton spoke of his struggles with the public safety unions — both instrumental in his election in 2003 — while praising the cooperation he says he’s getting for the Police and Fire Pension Board.

“I wish I could say the same for our labor negotiations,” Peyton said, “but it just hasn’t been that way.”

Police union President Nelson Cuba held a meeting for firefighters this summer at his union hall urging them to vote against the deal. He’s said since the vote he’s glad the two public safety unions are unified and remains firm that the city hasn’t proved to him it’s running lean enough for him to ask police and corrections officers to take pay cuts.

During the City Council’s budget negotiations that lasted from Tuesday night and into Wednesday, Councilwoman E. Denise Lee tried to restore the layoffs and demotions in the fire department. She couldn’t get the support for her colleagues, confirming Peyton’s long-held position that there’s solidarity on the council to impose salary cuts and hold police and fire unions to the same standards as other unions.

Now, top Peyton staffers are picking through the fire department’s $163 million budget to find the about the $1.7 million in cuts expected to be announced next week.

The cuts will not involve closing fire stations or taking trucks and units out of service, Peyton spokeswoman Misty Skipper said, but could include more layoffs.

matt.galnor@jacksonville.com,

(904) 359-4550

link: http://jacksonville.com/news/metro/2010-10-03/story/time-frame-hurd...

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