file photo by Boyd Loving
Ridgewood, fire department’s union come to terms on contract
JANUARY 8, 2015, 8:04 PM LAST UPDATED: THURSDAY, JANUARY 8, 2015, 8:05 PM
BY CHRIS HARRIS
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD
RIDGEWOOD – The village and the fire department’s union have come to terms on a new four-year agreement that the council is expected to accept the agreement when it meets next week.
The new contract was agreed to by both sides on Dec. 17, said Ridgewood’s Village Manager Roberta Sonenfeld, who detailed the agreement’s terms at the council’s meeting Wednesday night.
Sonenfeld said that both sides worked together during negotiations to avoid arbitration “and heavy use of lawyers.”
Under the terms of the new agreement, the council agreed to raise the starting base salary for a firefighter to $36,000 from $32,000, while creating three additional pay-scale steps, stretching the time in which a firefighter can obtain the top pay level to 13 years from 10.
The new contract eliminates longevity payments for new hires, and puts a cap on top terminal leave at $15,000 for those with at least a year of banked sick days, Sonenfeld said.
The union agreed to forgo pay raises for the first three years of the deal, with a 1.5 percent salary increase guaranteed for 2018, the final year of the contract.
“In recognition of our mutual commitment to growing staff and future leaders, we put in place an education benefit that provides for partial tuition reimbursement for job-relevant degrees and courses,” Sonenfeld said.
Sonenfeld projects the new contract will save the village approximately $170,000 per new officer over the course of their career with the fire department.
The whole story isn’t being told here. No union gives up raises for 3 years in a row without getting something major in return. Additionally, the primary reason there will be future cost savings is because younger, lower paid members, will be staffing the department in future years due to the retirement of senior, more highly paid members. More smoke & mirrors by the Aronsohn administration.
Smoke?
Where?
Time for RFD to save another basement……
Paramus, fair lawn…..VOLUNTEERS.
If they can do it we sure as hell can….I’m sick of wet nursing a bunch of garlic eaters….this is EXACTLY why NJ is going down the shitter. Absured property taxes to float these characters….time for action….NOT extending unsustainable Union contracts.
Very disappointing to see that the “step” program continues to be codified in our unuion contracts. Any “guaranteed raises” become permanent base compensation levels, on top of the step increases. Why shouldn’t union pay be tied to performance, like all non-union workers? Or, why not pay one-time bonuses for various periods of longevity?
people need to understand that the goal of the union negotiators is to maximize base pay at the end of a worker’s career, so that his or her lifetime pension (taxpayer obligation) will be maximized.
It sounds great that new employee costs to taxpayers will be reduces by $170,000 for NEW employees, who don’t een work for the village yet. But, what is more important is what the cost of the new contract will be to taxpayers over the next 5-10 years vs the terms of the old contract. Did the liavbility go up or down? If it did not go down, the village negotiatoirs failed, and the next police negotiations will have be far worse.
At this point, these negotiations appear to be another missed opportunity to dramatically simplify the structure of our labor contracts change the trajectory of the Ridgewood’s long term liabilities.
I bet the person who said……
Smoke?
Where?
Time for RFD to save another basement……
Paramus, fair lawn…..VOLUNTEERS
Has NEVER and will NEVER submit his/her application to be a volunteer Firefighter. That dirty work is for the little people right # 2!
Well said #4. mLet someone else do it.
Is there a Nepotism clause in the contract …?
I don’t know #7 but I bet there is a clause that would prevent you from becoming a Firefighter.
Why is anyone concerned about nepotism it exist very where.
this is a bull shit story, # 1 is so right, I say sneeeeeky shit going on some how just like last right boys.
#8 why don’t you educated yourself and get a roster the fire Dept. and see before you make an ass of yourself .
Who cares #8 as long as they do the job. Stop trying to stir up the shit.
Join up all you moaners
The Ridgewood Volunteer Firefighter
Requirements:
Be a minimum of eighteen (18) years of age.
Live or work in the Village of Ridgewood.
Be prepared to commit the necessary time and effort involved in being a Volunteer Firefighter.
Have a valid New Jersey Drivers License.
We could never staff a volunteer dept
Your right #8. but these posters don’t understand that and never will. They want sone one else to do it.
More smoke & mirrors by the Aronsohn administration. Well the VM said that it was a good contract. What more do you want?
Dam union thugs. Im going to protest. If my house start to burn Im not call them I will let it burn to the ground. I ‘ll show them.
This looks like a good contract for all parties. It reduces the growth in wages and benefits in-line with recent trends in inflation, lengthens out the step wage increases from 10=> 13 years from starting salary (which was raised from $32K to $36K) to the highest wage rate level, and reduces accumulated leave payments. Under the state law change in 2011, I assume this also incorporates higher health care and pension contribution rates as well. Hopefully this is a more sustainable contract after the annual 4%+ wage increases in addition to the step wage increases from 2009-2014 during a recession and when inflation was running at less than 2%. Well done RFD and Roberta, this is a good compromise. We should all just ignore the banter above about volunteer vs career fire department. Let’s just all be proud we’re one of only four municipalities in Bergen County to have a career department. There are clearly lots of volunteers in Ridgewood, too, with 14 as of the current roster on the RFD website (https://rfd.ridgewoodnj.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=55&Itemid=75) We should be thanking all parties involved for their service and their willingness to compromise instead of engaging in costly arbitration. Hopefully this serves as a template for the RPD, as well as the BOE.
This is just an obnoxious comment #14, written by someone with clear intent to discredit “follies”. You are insulting the 69 municipalities in Bergen County staffed with volunteer fire departments, as well as all of their volunteers. We have 14 volunteers on our RFD roster today, but they’re basically not allowed to do anything because of the career staff. Please stop your union tactics, trying to scare residents in to believing that a) volunteers can’t stop fires, and b) Ridgewood will never get enough volunteers. You’re just trying to discredit any alternative to a the VERY expensive RFD, which will cost us at least $8.2mn this year plus OT, or 18% of the total Municipal budget. We’re a Village of 25,000. There will be enough volunteers if we cannot afford a career department, and 69 other municipalities in this county prove that. Of course you’ll say that these other communities let their homes burn to the ground, but you would say that.
Well tell me Mr. I hate unions, have you submitted you application for Volunteer Firefighter in the Village or is being a volunteer just for the little people? I bet you never volunteered for anything in your miserable life and you expect others to volunteer so you can save a few pennies a day in your property taxes. Just another elete dumping in the working class.
I do believe you have been exposed for what you really are Mr. Union hater.
Care to either prove you are a volunteer or that you have your application for Volunteer Firefighter submitted?
We cannot get enough volunteers to staff an ambulance during the day.
How they heck would we get enough to staff a volunteer fd? (As I previously stated)
And I am not pro-union, just a resident since the 1960’s who appreciate the first rate dept we have here.
Unless you have your head up your ass, you will realize that the majority of the lazy residents don’t even cut their own grass.
Most either don’t have the time or energy so if you think they will spend the time required to get trained, and then get out of bed at night to answer false alarms then you are delusional.
And it’s one of things I willing to pay for here, along with rear yard trash pickup, recyclables pickup etc….and I don’t even mind paying the excessive board of Ed taxes since it insures that some newbie from NYC will buy my home when I get planted at Valleu .
is that what you are #20?
Working class?
How utterly pathetic…..
The same goes for the ambulance and the union bullies in the FD that keep volunteers off the rigs…..it’s pretty simple…..protect the turf, protect your job. I attempted to volunteer for the ambulance during the day because I work in town….EMT certified….I was told flat out…..NO. Excuse me?
Valley has a full EMT staff, so some actually argue that having a so called “Volunteer” EMT, staffed mainly by RFD employees who are paid municipal employees, is redundant in a Village of only 25,000.
valley has paramedics not EMT’s……