The size of a wage increase for Yorkton's firefighters is now in the hands of an arbitration board.
At a public hearing last week, lawyers for the City and the local of the International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF) argued their cases before the three-person panel comprising arbitrator Daniel Ish, Lorne West for the IAFF and Katrina Swan for the City.
The union is seeking a 7.5 per cent bump in each of three years from 2013 to 2015. The City is offering 3.5 per cent for 2013 and 2014 and three per cent for 2015.
However, Neal Matechuk, president of the IAFF local suggested the difference may not be as big as it looks.
"The percentage of being apart in the proposals that were taken to the board, yes [it is large], but at the table, we actually had narrowed the gap, and I won't go into any details in regards to that, but negotiations went very well, it's just that we did hit an impasse."
Mayor Bob Maloney was not impressed with going through the arbitration process again.
"The city has made what we consider to be a very fair contract offer," he said. "It all comes through the bargaining at the bargaining table and I feel strongly that's where this should have ended.
"We seem to always end up in arbitration. I think three out of the last four contracts have ended up in arbitration and in arbitration firefighters have been able to achieve some real gains and I think that's why we're here."
At the heart of the firefighter's case is historical precedent. Union lawyer Sean McManus cited numerous arbitration decisions in which boards based the awards on an average of the salaries paid to professional firefighters in small prairie cities, i.e., those with a population of $50,000 or less. In the jurisprudence these traditionally include Swift Current, Moose Jaw, North Battleford, Yorkton, Prince Albert and, sometimes, Brandon, Thompson and Portage La Prairie, Manitoba and even Spruce Grove, Alberta.
The goal of the union is to close the gap with the average of these cities. He said that although Yorkton firefighters had made gains toward parity during previous arbitrations, by 2012, they had fallen back to 87.63 per cent of the average. McManus also cited recent settlements of other locals that averaged 21.91 per cent over three years to justify the overall 22.5 per cent the Yorkton local is seeking. He said the union's current proposal will only bring them back to 90 per cent of parity.
Maloney was blunt about the parity issue.
"I think parity is ridiculous," he said. "I don't make what the mayor of Regina makes, the city manager doesn't make what the city manager would make in Prince Albert. If we were to do all of those comparatives I don't know if anybody could afford to live in Yorkton."
McManus also made a case that fire fighting has become more dangerous in the past decade or so, although, using the same data, Meghan McCreary, the City's counsel disputed that contention. She also cited $1.4 million the city has spent since 2008 on safety improvements not including the $7 million fire hall.
In any event, McManus said that issue and other economic factors were minor compared to the parity question.
In her rebuttal, McCreary argued that economic factors, such as cost of living, must be considered citing provincially legislated arbitration board procedures that, she said, requires the board to ensure an award is fair and reasonable to both employees and employer by considering wages and benefits in private and public, and unionized and non-unionized, employment; the continuity and stability of private and public employment; and the general economic conditions in Saskatchewan.
Among these, she said, was parity with other city workers. She noted that firefighters are already paid significantly more than the highest paid position in the City an justifiably so because of the unique nature of the job and that endless increases above and beyond what other employees are getting is unsustainable.
She said by legislation the board had to consider the consumer price index (CPI) and said the City's offer is already greater than inflation, above other public sector settlements, above other city employees' raises, and above what Regina and Saskatoon firefighters achieved in their latest round of negotiations.
McCreary also argued the appropriateness of the comparable cities, saying that only North Battleford, Swift Current and Weyburn a suitable and when that comparison is made, Yorkton has already achieved parity.
Matechuk disagrees.
"Unfortunately, they don't want to take that advice from a board and give us those comparables," he said. "They want to start a new comparable with just Swift, Battleford and Weyburn and each time they've been told, well, no, you can't do that, precedents have been set."
McCreary countered that argument saying the City could not be perpetually handcuffed by history because economic factors change with time. She noted that since some of the awards cited by the union, Brandon, for example, has become a city of more than 50,000 population and that the Saskatchewan economy has boomed, but not as much in Yorkton as in other places such as Prince Albert, Moose Jaw and Weyburn.
Ultimately, she concluded that the union had not provided adequate specific justification to increase the gap between firefighters and other city employees.
"I think our facts spoke for themselves in regards to us falling behind what our historical percentages have been with other departments, our comparators, and I think that was stated very well in our case to the board," he said.
Maloney said if the board sides with the union, it is either going to increase taxes or decrease other services.
"From a city's point of view, a lot of our costs are fixed so when we look at doing things in the community, getting things done, if we have a settlement in one area that is out of pace with what we're doing in others, the money has to come from somewhere, we have to balance our budget every year," he said.
"There is a point at which, and one of the members of the board said today, 'at what point is it affordable? What's the ceiling?' I know I'd be interested in finding out what is that ceiling."
