Would You Take A Pay Cut To Save Jobs?

Don't think THAT idea hasn't been bounced around!

Six jobs were saved by way of a Detail Platoon. A compromise was met. It was an agonizing couple of weeks but in the end, we were getting the DP like it or not, but we overwhelmingly voted FOR it. Had we voted against it, we would have gotten it anyway but with no little extras thrown in for the troops.

This was actually an honest attempt at the administration to hold on to people instead of tossing them out. I haven't become a cheerleader for the admin, but I HAVE to give them credit here. They were told to shave a certain amount from the budget. PERIOD. They were told they could come up with a way. The union was approached and we (the e-board and a subcommittee) tried to come up with an alternative to the DP. None made up enough money but we took their proposal and refined it more to suit our tastes and a decent compromise was realized.

The MOST important thing was, 6 people are still employed and the union membership, on the whole, looks good for working hard to keep them.

It's still going to be a bumpy ride, but at least that's something good.

For us neophytes explain what a Detail Platoon is. I know what a DP is, but not a Detail Platoon.

'twas an abv.

This is how it will work. The six officers will work details as their shift. The contractors will still pay the detail rate plus the administrative fee. The total amount collected by the department will cover the salaries and benefits of those in the Detail Platoon, or DP as I'm going to call it to save typing, other than this long explaination anyway.

This WILL cut into the amount of details available to the rest of us, but we've been getting a fair number as it is, plus the local PD has opened up the chance to cover any of their unfilled details in the area of the university. This is something that has been offered before but was balked at by our chief.

The DP will be staffed by the six lowest in seniority unless volunteers with MORE seniority come forward.

There's more to this, but this is the basic. Again, bottom line, we saved 6 jobs without cutting our heads off. It's the best we could do and it's not all that bad all things considered.