By Gillian Graham

Staff Writer

Biddeford city officials and firefighters may enter arbitration for the first time in the city’s history of negotiating union contracts if they are unable to compromise on overtime and holiday pay.

City officials and members of Local 3107 of the International Association of Firefighters AFL-CIO have been working to finalize a new contract since the previous contract expired last June. The parties met for negotiations twice before engaging in mediation. Mediation sessions were held last August and November.

The previous three-year contract will be effective until a new contract is signed. The city recently finalized contracts with unions representing police and public works employees.

If a meeting next week does not produce a contract, the city will move into arbitration, said city negotiator Michael Wing. The arbitration process generally takes 60 to 90 days and findings are binding except with wage, insurance and retirement issues.  

Negotiating teams for the firefighters’ contract moved into the fact-finding phase late last year at the request of the city, Wing said. The Maine Labor Relations Board appointed a fact-finding panel of employer representative John Perry, employee representative Donald Fontaine and neutral chairman David Plimpton. Fontaine issued a minority report for holiday and overtime issues.

Wing said the panel evaluates arguments and evidence from both sides and makes a recommendation on each issue. The fact-finding report was released in early January and accepted by the city council, he said.

The union voted 32-4 in February against a contract recommended by the city council, said union president Bill Langevin.

Sticking points in drafting a contract are overtime and holiday trade-offs. The fact-finding panel recommended discontinuing the current practice of allowing firefighters to trade two holidays for one day off.

The city argued allowing members to trade holidays for time off increases overtime costs, which the city is trying to control. This occurs when a firefighter taking time off is replaced by an off-duty firefighter at the overtime rate, according to the report.

Langevin said trading holidays for days off actually saves the city money because it is not paying holiday rates. The city maintains extra overtime costs are incurred when employees cover shifts.

“The city has made a convincing case that overtime pay has been steadily increasing in recent years and for the current fiscal year will probably be significantly in excess of $200,000. In the current economic, fiscal and budget crisis, the parties should work together to reduce unreasonable or unnecessary budget expense in order to assist the city in avoiding increasing taxes which will further burden beleaguered taxpayers and cutting jobs,” the report concluded.

The panel found the union should be willing to give up some prior contract provisions in “a time of severe economic and budget difficulties for municipalities and taxpayers,” according to the report.

Langevin said he was “shocked” the union lost on both holiday trade-off and overtime issues. The panel recommended the contract adopt language that says overtime is paid for “hours actually worked.”

The panel concluded existing contract language was interpreted to mean that if an employee is paid for sick leave, vacation, holiday pay or other time not actually worked, it may result in the employee being paid for hours not actually worked. That is not the standard for overtime calculations and the change would aid the city’s goal to reduce overtime costs, according to the report.

Langevin said changes to overtime language are “totally unfair” because similar changes were not made to police and public works contracts. He said overtime hours worked would be reverted to regular time if firefighters take a sick or bereavement day in the same week.

The union maintained during discussions of overtime with the panel that rescue calls generate income for the city and overtime is necessary to cover calls. The union also pointed out the amount of overtime paid is partly due to the choice the city makes not to hire additional personnel, resulting in more overtime, according to the report.

Langevin said he is concerned and frustrated by the lack of negotiations before moving into mediation.

“We never discussed the issues face to face with city officials,” he said.   

Wing said the union asked for a mediator to be present, but that doesn’t mean there hasn’t been discussion of issues.

“The mediation process provides a great deal of negotiations back and forth,” he said.

As work on a new contract continues, both Wing and Langevin said they would like to see it wrapped up as soon as possible.

“Everyone would like to see this settled,” Wing said.

Firefighters are upset about the negotiation process and the way they are being treated by the city, Langevin said.

“The morale is getting down so low. There’s a lot of resentment right now toward the city,” he said. “In my eyes we need to settle this as soon as possible before the relationship between the fire department and the city gets too bad.”

Staff Writer Gillian Graham can be reached at 282-4337, ext. 213.