Would You Take A Pay Cut To Save Jobs?

They are receiving $1000,00 each from the union. It was recomended and aproved during a meeting before the layoffs.

Fal River:

Hague wants to review administrative positions to bring back fire, police jobs

Posted Mar 03, 2009 @ 11:57 PM
Last update Mar 04, 2009 @ 12:34 AM

Fall River —

In the aftermath of Mayor Robert Correia’s reduction of 98 police and firefighters among 149 laid off municipal workers, the City Council’s vice president says those cuts jeopardize public safety and he called on councilors to review targeted administrative as alternative reductions.


Layoffs exceed expectations

Adjustments ahead for city departments

Is that some sense coming from City Hall or politics as usual?

Hague is pro public safety

New Bedford firefighter serving in Iraq issued a pink slip



NEW BEDFORD, Mass. -- A Navy Reservist serving overseas was issued a pink slip by his stateside job at the New Bedford Fire Department and his family is outraged.
Tough times have led to 35 layoffs within the New Bedford Fire Department, including sailor Leo Pike who has been serving in Iraq.
"It's scary to come home and not have the chance, you know he's been gone, to not have the chance to set up a new job. He's coming home to no job," said Leo Pike Sr., whose son lost his job.
Pike is due home in just a couple of weeks and had big plans for his finance and new baby.
"He's anxious to see his son. He wanted to come home and build a house," Pike Sr. said.
Chief Paul Leger said it has been a tough couple of weeks and when it came to Pike being let go, there was nothing he could do about it.
State civil service rules dictate layoffs according to seniority.
"They begin with the least senior person and we go up," Leger said.
Leger has had to let go every firefighter that he has hired since he took the chief job four years ago.
Pike was in the middle of the pack, hired in 2005.
His family is confident that their son is a fighter and that he will find a job when he gets back.

http://www1.whdh.com/news/articles/local/BO106452/

I believe there are two or three serving with Gil that got their slips.

I heard Brockton is going to be getting hit worst within the next few weeks.

Time to call ESGR. http://www.esgr.org

Cities cutting police work

Tight budgets allow for only the basics Outreach efforts, special units slashed

By Eric Moskowitz and Maria Cramer

Globe Staff / March 5, 2009

Deep budget cuts are forcing urban police departments to wipe out gang units, trim detectives from investigation teams, pull back on community outreach, and eliminate specialized patrols, as cities pare back to the most basic form of police work: putting uniformed officers in cruisers for patrol and 911 response.
The trend continued in Boston yesterday, where Commissioner Edward F. Davis announced that 40 cadets and 20 civilian employees will be laid off July 1. The department could also disband its horse and bicycle units to help close a $20 million budget gap in the next fiscal year.
The law-enforcement budget cuts will be most acute in the state's working-class and formerly industrial cities, communities such as New Bedford, Fall River, and Brockton, which rely most heavily on state aid to provide basic services. Facing an ever-growing budget deficit this fiscal year and next, Governor Deval Patrick has slashed local aid and called for eliminating a grant program that funds extra officers, programs, and equipment to enhance community policing.
"This is the reality of what we're facing," said A. Wayne Sampson, a former Shrewsbury chief who serves as executive director of the Massachusetts Chiefs of Police Association. "Most of our outreach programs are going to be eliminated just by the sheer lack of personnel to do them."
As a result of the strain, Worcester has just ended a popular foot patrol in its central business district. In Lynn, school resource officers were wiped out. And in New Bedford, the department dropped its gang unit, trimmed detectives from special investigation teams, and cut an entire division focused on building neighborhood connections, all to send experienced personnel back to cruisers after the newest officers were laid off.
New Bedford even called two canine officers back to patrol duty, forcing their highly trained dogs into early retirement.
There is little way to put a positive spin on it, Mayor Scott W. Lang said.
"The first purpose of government should be to keep our citizens safe and our kids educated," said Lang, who has asked Beacon Hill officials to provide more money to communities such as his to prevent police layoffs. "That's something right now that I think we're really putting a tremendous stress and test on."
Several cities, including Boston, Worcester, and New Bedford, have sought wage or benefit concessions to avoid layoffs, but unions have been reluctant to agree without a guarantee that all jobs will be protected.
That is a pledge that officials have been unable to make, given the steep decline in local revenues in recent months, combined with the deep cuts in state aid. Patrick made an immediate $128 million reduction to municipal aid earlier this year and has proposed deepening the cut to as much as $375 million for fiscal 2010, which starts July 1. He also reduced a $21.3 million grant for community policing by $5.1 million and called for eliminating it altogether next year.
Law-enforcement budget cuts would not affect police details at utility and road construction sites, an expensive practice that Patrick has sought to rein in, but which remains in place through local ordinances. Although taxpayers do not fund those overtime details directly, they pay for it in other ways, such as costs passed on through utility rates. Police have lobbied for keeping the details to enhance their visibility in the streets without straining municipal budgets.
The initial layoffs in New Bedford and elsewhere could be a preview for other cities. This week, Fall River laid off 53 police officers. Dozens of police jobs are on the table in Brockton.
Layoffs are expected across the state this spring and summer, as larger and needier communities come to terms with the economic crisis.
In Boston yesterday, Davis met with his command staff to announce the budget cuts, which he hopes can minimize the number of uniformed police layoffs.
"You can't deny that this is an across-the-board emergency that is affecting every sector of the public and private communities," Davis said.
The federal stimulus package, union concessions, and tax increases could dampen statewide law-enforcement cuts, but significant service reductions seem unavoidable.
"Over the course of time, police departments will be cut to staffing levels not seen in our lifetime," said James Machado, executive director of the Massachusetts Police Association, which represents officers across the state.
Already those reductions are prompting departments to reassign specialty and community divisions to cruisers, shifting from preventive to reactive police work.
The redeployments represent a basic "change in the way we do business," said Machado, a Fall River police sergeant.
Officials in multiple cities said they will try not to let response times for emergencies increase.
Other police work will necessarily suffer. That may mean slower investigations, with fewer detectives available. Waiting time could stretch for nonemergency calls, everything from car accidents without injuries to break-ins and robberies in which a perpetrator has already fled, officials and law-enforcement specialists said.
And departments could recede from community policing initiatives that many officials and residents have celebrated and endorsed in the last two decades, the relationship-building work with residents, business owners, and public-school students to boost neighborhoods and crack down on small crimes as a means to prevent larger ones.
Those initiatives were born out of the "broken windows" theory first espoused by criminologists George L. Kelling and James Q. Wilson in a 1982 Atlantic Monthly article. They were applied prominently by Boston's William J. Bratton here, in New York, and in Los Angeles, where Bratton currently serves as chief.
In an interview yesterday, Kelling said it would be a mistake for cash-strapped departments to automatically reassign remaining employees to cruiser duty and 911 response.
"The tendency of police departments confronted with limited personnel is to focus on more serious offenses, and we know from New York City that concentrating and focusing on minor offenses is probably more important, because it gives you access to criminals," said Kelling, a professor at Rutgers University and a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute.
Instead, he said, departments should conserve resources by spending less time responding to 911 calls, many of which are nonemergency, such as minor traffic accidents and break-ins that could be handled over the phone. Meanwhile, all officers in cruisers or otherwise, not just in special units, should be applying community policing philosophies, he said.
"Any retreat from preventive modes, I think, is more dangerous to communities than an after-the-fact response," Kelling said.

DiscussCOMMENTS (42)


http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2009/03/05/cities_cutting_police_work/

I'll bet MS-13 and such are happy to see this.

Not if everyone was armed and protected themselves.

Had to throw that in there, didn't they

I haven't seen many teachers getting the ax. So who's union is the MOST POWERFUL union in the country? Even the UAW has made concessions...

Ha! There are still plenty of teachers, teachers aide's, assistants, secretaries, guidance counselors, librarians and custodians with our school department while me and 30 other guys got the axe. They don't seem to be worried as far as cuts go.


If we're still in the recession stage, I'm dreading the depression stage...

I agree with 78th and stbbrn, in order for a paycut to be a logical decision, my finances would have to be in check, otherwise family comes first, unless of course the job at stake is a family member or close friend, then I would feel motivated to help them keep their job.

Maybe its just me but I consider all of the men and women that I trust my life with (i.e. co-workers) to be "close friends."

Dont think he is saying that lofu. I think he means he has to make sure he can feed the kids and wife or husband before he took the cut.

yes all I'm saying is, if I have any doubt that my family will be ok with less money, then I will not take my chances. If I may have a struggle, but only to protect the unemployment of someone VERY close to me who may not have any other options, (I'm not an officer yet but YES I would consider anyone covering my backside in the line of fire close, but theres that to consider and then there's someone you really know and trust outside of the coworker circle), that would motivate me "MORE" than protecting the jobs of "other police" over the safety of my family. Call me greedy or stingy and what-not but its logical. There's the filthy rich, and then theres those who get by with a little extra spending money who are given the option to give up christmas presents and then some OR feel guilty about someone else getting layed off.

Obviously anyone who is in danger of being layed off would want everyone to take the cut to save their unfortunate asses, but you cant blame those who dont get enough as it is.

PS. Two dogs were hanging out at my cousins tonight after we got back from a bar, and one fucking chewed my sleeve apart on my way to the car. How fucking stupid is that. I called P.D. before and after, I better get some damn money for the teeth holes in my hoodie. Apparently, they're calling animal control. anyone know the procedure for these sort of calls?

I agree 100%. I would do the same...... With that said there are Cops that I work with that I don't have much respect for. I work with one guy in particular that made it perfectly clear that he wants his tiny raise and doesn't give two sh^ts if a lower seniority guy gets laid off. He has a whopping 5 years on the job, but has a lot of seniority because of turnover etc. He is an a$shole in my opinion (and many others), but I would still, as Delta said, "crawl a hundred yards over broken glass" to help his selfish ass..........

It's just you.......

That is so sad, yet so very true. I WANT to consider all of my co-workers close friends, but there are a few that, though I don't DISLIKE them, I distance myself for several reasons.

Lousy to be that way, but it's life in the fast lane...and pretty much in the breakdown lane as well.

Apparently!! In fairness, I should have elaborated on my statement. I should point out that my department is in the middle of deciding on a "wage freeze" and not a pay cut as discussed earlier so it seems like a no brainer to me. I agree with everyone who said that they might not like everyone personally they work but that they would do whatever it takes to help save their ass. I just don't see the difference in "crawling through broken glass" as Delta said to help them physically and holding off on getting a raise that I have not seen yet anyway if it means someone I work with on a daily basis can continue to provide for their family.. I understand that some some cities are asking for a "pay cut" and I can understand not being able to give up money that is already being made and part of someone's monthly budget for providing for their family. In addition, I know that if my union does not vote for this wage freeze some of the guys I can count on the most to crawl through that broken glass to help me when I need won't be around, thus leaving me to rely on someone who might take the long way around that glass in the hopes of saving themselves.

Sorry for the rambling, just came off a midnight shift and my brain is mush.

Viveiros wants chiefs to update public on effects of layoffs


By Michael Holtzman
Herald News Staff Reporter
Posted Mar 05, 2009 @ 08:13 PM
Last update Mar 05, 2009 @ 08:15 PM

Fall River —

The City Council’s Committee on Public Safety hopes to bring the fire and police chiefs to neighborhood meetings to discuss layoff impacts upon public safety, said Councilor Cathy Ann Viveiros, who sponsored a resolution.

Based on phone calls and questions Viveiros said she and councilors have received since 98 police and firefighters were among 149 workers laid off Monday, the public needs to have concerns over the layoffs alleviated.

Viveiros said the neighborhood groups are concerned about police visibility and availability and relationships forged to help targeted areas of the city and make them safer.

She also identified worries over reduced deployment of fire personnel and equipment impacting responses to emergencies.

Viveiros, who has acknowledged the possibility she will run for mayor this year, said recent layoffs in New Bedford have caused “rolling blackouts” of fire stations. She wondered if Fall River would be similarly impacted.

“There’s just a lot of anxiety out there,” Viveiros said Thursday.

She said the public safety subcommittee’s chairman, City Council Vice President Raymond E. Hague, strongly supports holding the meetings. Hague has held his committee meetings with neighboring groups at various times to collect information and discuss issues. The third committee member is Councilor Brian Bigelow.

In order for the committee to convene neighborhood meetings and invite city officials, Viveiros said a majority of the full counsel would need to support her resolution.

Her aim is to bring Police Chief John M. Souza and Fire Chief Paul D. Ford to neighborhood meetings within the next couple of weeks.

She hopes the chiefs can explain to the neighborhood groups what they can expect for services in the wake of the massive layoffs.

The council is slated to address the resolution at Tuesday night’s regular meeting. Viveiros said she expects the full body to support it.

http://www.heraldnews.com/news/x1959840346/Viveiros-wants-chiefs-to-update-public-on-layoffs