L.A. Firefighters, City In Tentative Deal That Will Save City $12 Mil

From LA Weekly's City News Blog, March 10

LOS ANGELES, CA – With the city of Los Angeles facing its worst budget crisis in decades, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa asked city unions to make sacrifices -- and now it looks like at least one of them is prepared to do just that.

The United Firefighters of Los Angeles agreed to $12 million in concessions for a new contract that would cover its 3,500 members, although the deal still has to be ratified by the rank and file.

"The city wanted a little bit more and we gave them a little bit more,'' union president Pat McOsker said. " ... We have to have it ratified by our membership, of course, but we have a tentative agreement and we think we have a deal now, a contract."

He said the city's Executive Employee Relations Committee, which includes Villaraigosa and key members of the City Council, also tentatively approved the numbers -- apparently after the union agreed to shave the $12 million -- even though the city originally asked for $13 million in concessions.

It's not clear from where the savings will come. The city already has a "brownout" policy, in effect since last summer, that shutters engine companies one at a time throughout the city to save money. Los Angeles has a $212 million-and-growing deficit and is looking at another $485 million in red ink come July.

The union has been without a contract since June.