Last month’s arbitration decision between the city of Saint John and its firefighters will cost taxpayers about $9.4 million.
That’s according to a city staff report outlining the financial impact of the decision released at last week’s Common Council meeting.
The five-year contract includes annual wage hikes of just under three per cent, retroactive to 2015.
The firefighters’ union was asking for wage hikes of between 3.5 and 7.3 per cent a year, which would have cost taxpayers about $16.8 million.
Coun. David Merrithew says the ask by firefighters is “miles” away from the rate of inflation and is “mind-boggling”.
“It’s just ungodly to think they would come to the table with that kind of ask,” says Merrithew. “To me, I don’t think they wanted to negotiate at all, just head right to arbitration. I’m telling you, arbitration is broke.”
The settlement is about $3.5 million more than the city’s proposal — a wage hike of two per cent a year — and $7.4 million less than what the firefighters’ union proposed, according to the report.
Mayor Don Darling says he’s worried about the wage increases and the impacts they will have on protective services.
“This has nothing to do with respect,” says Darling. “I respect our first responders immensely, police and fire. It does have to do with our ability to pay and our ability to keep up with wage increases that were double inflation over the last decade and are exceeding inflation significantly.”
The city has been forced through a “broken arbitration process” to award raises that it can’t afford, he says, adding that the settlement is jeopardizing the force’s long-term sustainability.
“When you have an arbitration process that doesn’t consider the municipality’s ability to pay or the municipality’s unique situation, that’s what you get,” says Darling.
City staff say they’ve put aside adequate contingencies to cover the first four years of the contract.
