International
Association of Fire Fighters, Local 315
And
City
of
Interest
Arbitration
Arbitrator: Paul D. Jackson
Date
Issued:
Arbitrator:
Jackson; Paul D.
Case #: 02468-I-79-00065
Employer:
City of
Date Issued:
IN ARBITRATION BEFORE PAUL D.
JACKSON
In re: )
THE CITY OF
and ) DECISION
AND AWARD
INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF )
FIREFIGHTERS, Local 315 )
Date of Hearing:
Place of Hearing:
Representing City of
Cabot
Dow Associates
Representing Local 315: Larry R. Johnson
Arbitrator Paul
D. Jackson
(206)
325-0650
BACKGROUND
The City of
approximately
115 miles from the state's only metropolis,
from
the State Capitol of
a
population of approximately 10,400 and ranks 37th in that regard within the
State.
It is 23rd in per capita assessed valuation, and is dependent
principally
upon the wood products industry.
having,
in 1979, approximately 19,000 residents. It is a maritime and industrial
city
and also a residential and retail shopping center.
For 12 years Hoquiam has had a collective bargaining
relationship
with
Local 315 of the International Association of Firefighters, the
representing
Fire Department employees of the City. Their most recent agreement
was
for two years and terminated on
commenced
negotiations for a new agreement in July, 1979, in accordance with
24, 1979, when, arriving at an
impasse, the
Public
Employment Relations Commission. At the conclusion of
mediation six
Contract issues remained
unresolved. Arbitration is required by law in such
case
(RCW 41.56) and the undersigned was selected to be the Arbitrator.
ISSUES TO BE RESOLVED
1. Salary
2. Longevity pay (
3. Departmental changes
(City's proposal)
4. Grievance procedure (City's
proposal)
5. Seniority (City's proposal)
6. Duration and zipper clause
(City's proposal)
Issue No. 1 - Salary
The Union demands, for the first six months of the year 1980,
an
across-the-board
increase of 11.3% which is the percentage increase in the
Department of Labor's
Consumers Price Index for the
Earners and Clerical Workers,
from July '78 to July 1979; for the second six
months,
the
is
in the CPI from July 1979 to July 1980.
Additionally, the
as a
"catch-up" payment towards the equalization of the salaries of
Hoquiam
firefighters
with those in other
comparable,
and most particularly with its neighbor,
The
having
an EMT I (Emergency Medical Technician) Certificate. (24 out of 25
firefighters
in the unit have such certificate.)
For the second year of the contract, beginning
the
percentage
increase in the Consumers Price Index from July 1980 to November
1980,
plus an additional 2.5% across-the-board "catch-up" increase.
In July of 1981, the
the-board
increase based upon the percentage increase in the Consumer's Price
Index from November 1980 to
July 1981.
The total specifically ascertainable demand of the
first
half of 1980 therefore is for across-the-board increases of 14.8%. The
proposed
increase for the second half of 1980 is not known at this time but
based
on recent experience it could be an additional eight or nine percent.
Likewise, the total increases
demanded for 1981 are unascertainable but could
run
to over 17 percent based upon the past year's CPI experience.
The City's counter proposal for a two year contract is: For the
first
year, an 8% across-the-board increase plus a 1% premium payment to
holders
of an EMT Certificate. For 1981, the City proposes a 6% across-the-
board
increase, PLUS the percentage by which the Consumers Price index from the
period
July 1979 to July 1980 exceeds 9%. Thus, if the percentage increase
was
13%, the salary rise would be 10%.
Contentions
The Union's principal argument on behalf of
its demands are
founded
on the contention, first, that its members' economic position is
substantially
below than that of firefighters in comparable communities within
the
State of Washington, thereby justifying the "catch-up" increases of
4%
to
put them on a par with such communities, and, second, that a fair and
equitable
wage policy requires that the real income of the employees be
maintained
in the face of the unprecedented inflation and that this can only
be
achieved by raising salaries point by point with the increases in the
Consumers Price Index since that
index is an accurate reflection of the decline
in
the value of the dollar.
Additional justifications include the need for a special considera-
tion for these employees because of the greater
risk of death or injury on the
job;
the increase in service and productivity each year as demonstrated by
certain
tables showing the total "runs" of equipment from 1977 to 1979; the
greater
work pressures by the taking over of private ambulance service,
from
which time "runs", and responsibilities have greatly increased.
The Union contends that the increase of Hoquiam's assessed
property
values
per firefighter, from 1979 to 1980, was approximately $700,000 making
the
demands of the Union entirely feasible financially, inasmuch as for each
percentage
Point salary increase the cost to the City is below $6,000.
The Union also argues that there is a substantial differential
between
the hourly wages of skilled and non-skilled labor in private industry,
and
of other City employees of Hoquiam compared to the hourly wages of its
members,
showing for example, a senior firefighter to have an hourly wage of only
$5.62 (based on a 56 hour
week) as compared to a non-skilled worker whose
average
hourly wage (based on a 40 hour week) in 1979 was $7.95 or as compared
to a
Hoquiam longshoreman whose wage was $10.07 per hour; or as compared to
the
wages of a skilled laborer whose average wage was $11.83.
The Union asks the Arbitrator to note the difference between
the
hourly
wage of the firefighter compared to other Hoquiam City employees (who
work
40 hours a week) whose average wage is $7.51 an hour.
The City denies that there is any justification for
"catch-up"
salary
increases. There is wide disagreement between the City and the Union
as
to what are comparable cities which state law enjoins arbitrators to
consider
in reaching their award, but in any event it contends that its salary
levels
are competitive with other cities and the internal organization
of
the Hoquiam Fire Department and its special job classifications make its
salary
opportunities for senior firemen levels fair, reasonable and equitable.
The City states that, as a result of past increases, the
salaries of
its
firefighters have outpaced the rise in the Consumer Price Index during the
same
period and it rejects the Union's argument for "the indexing of
salaries"
with
the Consumers Price Index, pointing out that such an approach toward
achieving
fair salaries is not justified because the Index is purely hypothetical,
is
not applicable to the situation of any particular firefighter and national
economic
policy rejects as unwarranted and economically unsound indexing with
the
CPI as showed by the national voluntary guidelines and wage settlements
generally
throughout the country and within the State, which have a range
substantially
below the actual rises in the CPI.
The City states that the inherent risks attached to the job of
firefighter
have been recognized and compensated for by the special benefits
of
the firefighters' Collective Bargaining Agreement and their special health,
welfare
and pension benefits. With regard to comparisons based on hourly wages,
the
City rejects this also as an invalid argument, noting that the Union arrives
at a
purported 56 hour work week by totally ignoring the special characteristics
of a
firefighter's job which traditionally requires a 24 hour shift and
variations
thereof whereunder firefighters are obliged to remain
at the station-
house
on duty around the clock, which includes sleeping and attending to their
own
needs much of that time unless a fire emergency arises, and are engaged in
routine
regular work within a time frame of only eight hours, during the day.
Thus, according to the City,
the alleged 56 hour week referred to by the Union
and
made its benchmark for measuring other jobs is totally unrealistic and
misleading.
A major argument of the City, is that its counter proposal is
the
maximum
it can offer under anticipated revenues for 1980. The City is presently
taxing
at its authorized limits under state law. Estimated expenditures,
according
to the City budget, are already calculated to exceed anticipated
revenues
due to personnel related costs which have continued to exceed
projections
as a result of recent contract negotiations.
This "inability to pay" argument was supported with
the introduction
of
the City's 1980 budget based upon a projected 7.5% across-the board salary
increase
for firefighters.
The "inability to pay" argument is rejected by the
Union, princi-
pally on the grounds that actual experience over
the past several years has
shown
that the City, each year has continued to have ever larger end of year
surpluses
appropriated as a revenue for current year expenses, from 6.2% in
1978
to 14.1% in the current year. The current surplus is almost
$300,000.00.
This was possible because
revenue exceeded expenses because of the conser-
vative estimate of revenues. For the year 1979
receipts exceeded estimates
by
over $200,000.00. At the end of 1979 there was an unencumbered, unspent
balance
of $84,229 for all departments. Both long and short debt of the
city
was substantially reduced in 1979.
Discussion, Findings and Award
The arbitrator, by State law, is required in contract
arbitrations,
to
take into consideration certain facts in arriving at an award affecting a
municipality
and its uniformed employees (RCW 41.56.460).
None of the factors required by law to be considered including
a
comparison
of "comparable" cities, are mandated to be controlling or pre-eminent
in
the arbitrator's ultimate conclusions. The weight he gives to various
factors
is a subjective determination, of which, certainly of primary
importance
is the validitity of the economic data and arguments
presented
and
their relative pertinency to the case at hand.
Of immediate interest in applying the statutory mandate is the
circumstance
that the parties themselves have not been able to agree upon
"comparable
cities"; note is made also of the fact that no city outside of
the
State of Washington was compared although the statute would go beyond
the
State for comparison purposes. These comments are motivated by the
importance
placed by the parties on this item of consideration and by the Union's
demand
for 4% across-the-board "catch-up" increases. The Union particularly
urged
upon the Arbitrator the need for comparison with the City of Aberdeen.
The law speaks of "cities and counties respectively of
similar size"
but
does not define "size". Arbitrators have frequently defined it in
terms of
population
which is one reasonable approach, although population size may be
less
relevant than other kinds of sizes. Thus "size" may mean the area
covered
by
cities within their fire control jurisdiction; or the size of the tax base, inclu-
ding
total property valuations and sales, excise and other tax sources, which in
turn
make pertinent other factors such as the nature and character of the cities
themselves,
including whether they are inland or maritime, industrial, agricultural,
commercial
or primarily residential. These considerations may greatly affect
the
support given a city's fire department, its productivity, the services
required
of it and the city's ability to pay. To determine whether the employees
in
this instance are at a salary disadvantage compared with those of comparable
cities
this Arbitrator, has selected his own list of "comparable cities",
and not
only
with regard to population size but also considering the overall charac-
teristics of the cities selected and their financial
resources. Aberdeen is
included,
not because it is comparable but because the Union urges that Hoquiam's
salaries
should equal Aberdeen's.
__________
CITY POPULATION PER
CAPITAL LAND AREA POPULATION
ASSESSED VALUE & SQ
MI. PER SQ. MI.
Aberdeen 19,075 14,515 10.0 1908
Anacortes 8,870 20,000 7.4 1199
Hoquiam 10,400 15,219 3.8 2737
Kelso 10,925 9,446 6.0 1821
Mt. Vernon 12,600 16,131 6.6 1909
Shelton 7,020 15,608 3.9 1800
(Employer's Exhibit 11-1980
Citizens Guide to Local Government-Washington
State-Research Council,
10/15/79)
__________
Of the above cities, all of them, (except Aberdeen) are within
six places above or
below
Hoquiam in population size on the complete list of Washington cities.
Several cities closer in
population size have been omitted because of substan-
tial differences in the nature and character of
the city, topographically and
demographically.
__________
1977 CITY REVENUES (Amounts in
thousands)
CITY GENERAL
PROPERTY TAX TOTAL
Aberdeen 658.2 4,636.2
Anacortes 627.7 2,124.4
Hoquiam 503.2 2,358.2
Kelso 295.7 2,153.7
Mt. Vernon 548.2 2,412.3
Shelton 298.9 1,175.6
_____
1979 BUDGET EXP. 1979 MO. SALARY
CITY FOR FIRE CONTROL FOR FIREFIGHTER POLICE OFFICER
Aberdeen $1,028,948 $1,536 $1,419
Anacortes 468,147 1,351 1,314
Hoquiam 486,909 1,366 1,325
Kelso 412,505 Unav. Unav.
Mt.
Vernon Unav. 1,292 1,259
Shelton 212,731 1,160 1,150
__________
In reviewing the above tables above, note should be made of
Shelton's
position
which shows a tax base of approximately one-half of the other cities,
and
of its substantially lower salary scale. Also noteworthy are the revenues
of
Aberdeen compared to the other cities. The 100% difference is attributable
in
part to the fact that it is a commercial center as well as an industrial
city
and its sales tax revenues greatly exceed the other cities. The budget
of
Aberdeen's Fire Department is more than twice that of the other cities; the
population
is almost that much greater.
With regard to the four other cities to which comparison has
been
made,
another factor has been urged by Hoquiam in support of its position that
its
firefighters are reasonably and fairly compensated, that is, the circumstance
that
Hoquiam has a special firefighter classification of "Driver" the
salary
for
which in 1979 was $1,434 per month. Twelve of a total of 18 journeymen
are
Drivers and this position is available after three years in the Department
by
passing a test, and positions are assigned by seniority. None of the other
cities
above (excluding Aberdeen) has this classification. Therefore, two-
thirds
of the firefighters of Hoquiam can progress to a salary considerably
above
the base firefighters salary of the comparable cities.
Examination of all of the evidence submitted by the parties,
and
careful
consideration of their contentions leads to the writer to conclude that
the
salaries of Hoquiam firefighters are not grossly disporportionate
to those
of
comparable cities.
Aberdeen is not deemed a "comparable" city. It is
next door to
Hoquiam and it shares jointly
in firefighting control by virtue of written
agreement.
A top journeymen firefighter's monthly salary for Aberdeen in 1979
was
$1,536 (Employer's Exhibit No. 14). The journeyman salary in Hoquiam was
$1,366.
However, proximity of cities does not, ipso facto, justify equalization
of
their employees' salaries with neighboring cities. For example, of eight
cities adjoining
Seattle, all of them had firefighters salaries ranging from
$45 to $89 a month below that
of Seattle and in one case, a much smaller
city
had a salary $72 per month higher than Seattle. (Employer's Exhibit
No. 13-1979 Survey of Washington State Council of Firefighters). The