Oak Lawn OKs union concessions

Despite cuts that snatch away their overtime and holiday pay for 16 months, Oak Lawn firefighters say saving the threatened jobs of nearly a dozen colleagues was worth it.

"It's good and it's bad," said Eric Berge, a local firefighter whose job was on the line unless significant concessions were offered by the fire union. "Hard as things have been around here, it's good to know that everybody came together."

Oak Lawn and its firefighters reached an agreement on cost-cutting concessions at Tuesday's village board meeting. The new deal was approved in a 5-0 vote. Trustee Jerry Hurckes (1st), whose daughter died in an accident over the weekend, did not attend the meeting.

The deal is expected to save Oak Lawn about $392,000 through 2010.

It calls for the fire union's 85 members to give up their holiday and overtime pay for the next 16 months. Instead, they'll work those hours for straight pay and have agreed to "working furloughs," or working for free on certain days.

Firefighters also will forgo scheduled raises and will lose their annual $1,000 clothing allowance typically used to buy uniforms and equipment. The union also will drop two outstanding grievances.

The concessions mean the 11 threatened jobs will be saved and the fire department can maintain its current staffing standard of four people to an engine - a standard some village officials contend leads to overstaffing and a bloated fire department payroll.

During negotiations leading up to the deal, village officials had demanded the firefighters pay a greater portion of their health insurance costs. But the deal approved Tuesday doesn't include any such increase.

Finance director Brian Hanigan called the staffing and medical benefit issues "the two 10,000-pound gorillas hovering in the room" that weren't addressed in the deal.

"It was a temporary cease fire," he said of the agreement. "This is all going to come out again as the village has to file another budget next year."

Negotiations between the firefighters union and the village grew contentious this summer, but union officials credited Trustee Alex Olejniczak (2nd) and Mayor Dave Heilmann for their late-inning involvement in the process.

"Everybody seems to be happy," union president Ted Moran said. "I'm just happy Oak Lawn residents are going to stay safe."