Allen Park, MI to lay off entire dept.

[dtownsteve]

The Allen Park city council has decided to employ a new negotiation tactic - issue lay-off notices to the entire department.

http://www.freep.com/article/20110223/NEWS02/110223020/With-video-Allen-Park-firefighters-brace-department-wide-layoff-notices-today?odyssey=mod|newswell|text|FRONTPAGE|s

Apparently, the IAFF local have a contract that expires in 2013. Seeing the need to cut costs, they voluntarily opened their contract to offer concessions. This is the thanks they get. Perhaps the mayor/council is anticipating a repeal of PA312?

[JoeMZ191]

This is just disgusting. Who does the city council think will provide coverage? All of the departments in that area are running short-staffed. We have departments up this way running 2 man engines. Mutual aid is even getting dicey.

[TRUCK61]

that is quite the concession. Good luck citizens when your house is on fire or you need an ambulance. I'm sure the mayor and councilmen will man up and start going on calls.

[yardbirdjack]

Call Rush Limbaugh, and the rest of the republican crew! If you have yellow snow in the front yard..it's them!

[oregonFF1]

Lay off an entire department that was expected to run 3,050 calls this year? How can they think that's a safe thing to do...

[Bones42]

Shameful....

[dtownsteve]

It's simply a scare tactic, but nothing could make the administration look more like a bully, IMO. It infuriates me. Just to update, Allen Park and next-door-neighbor Taylor are in talks about a merger.

[gunnyv]

This is just disgusting. Who does the city council think will provide coverage? All of the departments in that area are running short-staffed. We have departments up this way running 2 man engines. Mutual aid is even getting dicey.

You're right about our area, Joe. And the best part is, many communities, like where I work, think your dept will be the one to bail us out. For example, I've fought tooth and nail to acquire more than 3 cans of AFFF per rig, but the chiefs all believe the magical crash truck will come from your place at the drop of a hat.

The new mutual aid program is even dicier. No minimums per rig anymore, send what you want, with no increase in the number of companies/depts responding on the alarm. So now instead of getting 4 rigs with 5 each on the second alarm, you get 4 with 2-3 on each.

[nameless]

the mutual aid system is becoming heavily abused by municipalities. It was meant for extreme circumstances, not for when you don't want to properly staff your department.