City manager not concerned with firefighter salary complaints

Copyright © 2008
Gallup Independent
By Kevin Killough
Staff writer

GALLUP — On October 2, members of Gallup Firefighters Association Local 4296 called a news conference to complain about the city’s low wages. City Manager Gerald Herrera is saying that city employees should place their commitment to the community before their paycheck, but he respected the union’s right to voice their complaints.

“The union has the prerogative to publicly disseminate their feeling regarding possible amendments to their current contract,” Herrera said.

At the press conference two weeks ago, the firefighters were saying that entry-level wages were $8.24 per hour. That was only $1 above minimum wage and only 23 cents more than the pay rate 10 years ago. In comparison, Hobbs and Los Alamos were paying around $13.44, the highest in the state.

“Gallup is clearly at the bottom,” local union president Thomas Silva said at the conference.

Herrera says that the city is placing priority on the police union contract, which is due for renewal in February 2009. The firefighters’ contract is valid until September of next year. Who gets preference is determined by priority, Herrera said.

The local union was partly motivated by recent decisions to reconsider police salaries. The city had been spending thousands training officers, who would then be lured away after completing their training to other agencies with higher salaries. Herrera says the two departments share distinct job functions and could not be compared.

Herrera adds that the service of every city employee is valued by the mayor and council, but he didn’t think that the firefighters should be more concerned with pride in the work they do than just how much they’re paid.

“It is unfortunate that in today’s society that workplace pride has been reduced to a specific delineation of job duties that dictate a contractual dollars and cents value. I would hope that a majority of city employees would feel more of a commitment to the community than just a paycheck, since this community is made of their friends, relatives and family members,” he says.

He says that he hoped that all collective bargaining units would wait until their contracts are due for their opportunity to negotiate contracts.