LANCASTER, Pa. — Lancaster's firefighter union is criticizing the city's decision to shrink the number of on-duty firefighters from 13 to 11, a number it says doesn't meet national fire protection standards.
Leadership of the union, Lancaster Professional Firefighters, IAFF Local 319, expressed concerns in a July 1 post on its Facebook page, saying in part, "We may burn to death tonight… another family or some innocent children sleeping may die due to poor staffing levels tonight — contact city hall and express your concerns."
The decision, which took effect July 1, will help cut down on overtime pay, according to the city.
It comes as Lancaster faces a $10 million deficit heading into 2025.
On Monday, FOX43 asked for an interview with Lancaster Mayor Danene Sorace but was told she was out of the office.
The mayor's office instead provided the following statement:
"There has been no reduction in staff. This is a scheduling and budgetary issue. We still have 69 fire suppression staff, a number that has remained consistent throughout Mayor Sorace’s time as mayor.
An arbitration award put in place decades ago allows for up to 8 firefighters per shift to be off on PTO. In order to maintain 13 firefighters per shift, we must call in additional staff and pay them at time and a half. Only halfway through the year, we’ve already spent 82% of our overtime budget, amounting to $370,000 of $450,000. This is in addition to nearly $6 million in regular salaries. This is not sustainable for the City’s finances.
The decision was made to go from 13 to 11 firefighters on shift, effective July 1. While we want to have more firefighters on duty, we cannot afford the existing arbitration agreement.
This issue was not a problem previously due to a side-letter agreement that has been in place for over a decade. Unfortunately, the union refused to extend this agreement. We continue to balance budgetary constraints with the safety of our City, which is why Home Rule is so important."
The schedule adjustments come seven months after the city permanently closed Fire Station 6 on Fremont Street. When the decision was announced in September of 2023, the mayor said the closure would not impact staffing, and she stressed there have been no firefighter layoffs at this point.
The union, however, believes differently. In its July 1 Facebook post, it accuses the city and fire administration of "effectively [lying]" to them.
Lancaster firefighters often work overtime, due to that previous arbitration agreement which allows eight firefighters to be off at any one time.
In a July 3 Facebook post, union president Geoffrey Stone provided the following statement:
"Over ten years ago the Lancaster City Bureau of Fire saw two tragic fires. In February of 2013 there was a fire on E Madison St where there were three firefighters injured with one severely burned. There were two civilian fatalities during the outcome of this fire. In July of 2013 on E Clay St there were seven family members that perished because of the fire. There were more victims in the house than firefighters on duty at the time.
We were understaffed at the same low levels then as we are now. We signed a Side Letter Extra Hours agreement with the City and gave up our time and a half for overtime. This was to guarantee that the City staffed us daily with higher numbers. These higher staffing numbers helped provide better service and safer conditions for the citizens and firefighters on duty.
Over the ten years that we worked the side letter for straight time, we have saved the City millions of dollars. We were the only department ever asked to work overtime for straight time rate. During the second half of last year, the City and Union spent numerous meetings working on the details of a new 4-year contract. Both parties came to an agreement and a new Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) was signed from January of 2024 through December of 2027. During these negotiations, the Union attempted to get the City to agree and place into the CBA a staffing number without success. The Union’s stance is that safe staffing is needed to ensure safety to all parties. Staffing at or below 11 does not meet National Fire Protection Standards (NFPA-1710). A standard row home fire calls for a minimum of 15 firefighters for the initial alarm. These numbers do not include the high-rise and multi-family units that are in and continue to be built in the city.
The Union has and continues to be allowed to have eight firefighters off at a given time. This number was awarded by a neutral arbitrator during a CBA negotiation over a decade ago. There were over 90 active firefighters in the ranks of Bureau when this was awarded. The city has continued to cut the ranks of the department (currently 69) and still cites this as a fault of the Union.
Effective January 1 of this year, the City permanently closed Station 6 on Cabbage Hill. During the closure, the City stated that this would not affect staffing levels. Seven months later and they have drastically reduced the staffing to 11 on duty fire fighters.
Local 319 understands the City is in financial constraints and we have done our part for the last ten years. The staffing issues must be addressed and there needs to be a plan and path forward. Without this we could see the same results we saw in 2013. "
FOX43 tried to contact the union on Monday but did not receive a response.
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