Mayor Nagin Shortchanges New Orleans Fire Fighters

IAFF General President Harold Schaitberger and New Orleans, LA Local President Nick Felton participated in a local radio talk show interview regarding the fire fighters’ pay issue.

January 30, 2007 -- New Orleans fire fighters expected a big pay raise last month. Instead, some got shortchanged. A pay dispute that has festered in New Orleans for decades remains unresolved, despite judicial rulings and promises from city officials to boost fire fighter salaries.

“We’re depending on the judicial system, which has always been fair, to continue to put pressure on the city administration and the mayor to bring fairness to fire fighters,” says Nick Felton, president of New Orleans, LA Local 632.

The long-running dispute between Local 632 and New Orleans city officials over fire fighter pay should have been resolved January 26 with the implementation of two raises. Fire fighters have long challenged New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin’s administration over paltry salaries. Starting salaries for fire fighters in New Orleans are as low as $8.34 an hour.

Low wages have made it increasingly difficult for the department to hire and retain fire fighters. The department has 255 fewer fire fighters today than it did pre-Hurricane Katrina. Currently, there are 515 fire fighters — compared to the more than 770 in August 2005, when the hurricane hit the Gulf Coast.

New Orleans Local 632 struggles to recover from Hurricane Katrina in other ways. Firehouses are in disrepair, damaged equipment hasn’t been repaired or replaced, and fire fighters are using their own money to buy toilet paper. Staffing has fallen from four fire fighters to three on most apparatus. Fire fighters also continue to work out of FEMA-issued trailers because repairs to firehouses are incomplete.

But the salary dispute is arguably the one issue causing the most outrage among Local 632 members because fire fighters have grappled with it for years.

New Orleans, LA Local 632 President Nick Felton is interviewed by the local media regarding the fire fighters’ ongoing pay dispute with Mayor Ray Nagin.

Mayor Nagin, who is in his second term, failed to authorize annual 2 percent longevity increases for fire fighters, even though the state legislature in Louisiana mandated the increase. The Supreme Court upheld the legality of the mandated raises in 2001, leaving the Nagin administration to cope with a massive financial obligation created by years of unpaid raises.

On November 8, 2006, Civil District Judge Kern Reese ordered the city to begin paying fire fighters the 2 percent longevity raises immediately. In his ruling, Reese said the pay dispute “has languished for more than 25 years. The time has now arrived for the City of New Orleans . . . to compensate its fire fighters as mandated by law.”

“This issue should have been resolved decades ago,” says IAFF General President Harold Schaitberger. “For the city and the mayor to continue ignoring the courts is ludicrous — even contemptible.”

Fire fighters also are in line for a 10 percent salary increase. In July 2006, Nagin announced plans to raise salaries by 10 percent for all police officers and to boost the annual starting pay for rookie fire fighters by $5,300. However, Nagin failed to include raises for all fire fighters in his proposal, and Local 632 leaders blasted the mayor for failing to recognize the sacrifices of veteran fire fighters. It was the fourth time he passed over fire fighters. All other New Orleans public employees received 10 percent raises in late 2006.

Ultimately, Local 632 convinced the New Orleans City Council to overrule Nagin. The Civil Service Commission also agreed to give all fire fighters a raise, although it modified the increases for fire recruits, lowering it from $5,300 to $3,900. The Commission made the adjustment because the proposed $5,300 increase would have pushed the starting hourly wage for a fire department trainee higher than a first-year fire fighter’s salary.

That wage hike was intended to boost the annual salary for a new fire fighter to $19,896 annually, or $9.17 an hour. Both the 2 percent annual longevity raise and 10 percent wage increase should have been reflected in the fire fighters’ paychecks on January 26. But the pay of approximately 70 fire fighters actually went down January 26. Others got an increase, but not the amount expected. Judge Reese scheduled another hearing for February 2 to examine the paychecks of 30 randomly selected fire fighters and to determine whether the city boosted pay as it was ordered.

While fire fighters continue to press for wage increases, the salaries of New Orleans administrators has doubled over the past eight years, according to a story January 29 in the New Orleans Times-Picayune. The paper reports that Nagin has supported massive pay increases for his top staff.

The salary of his communications director increased from $47,460 in 1999 to $122,025 in 2007 — a 157 percent jump. The salary of his aviation director increased from $68,892 in 1999 to $166,467 in 2007 — a 141.6 percent jump.