Word: firemen
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Some sectional bitterness is appearing too. Governors and mayors in the Northeast, an area of aging industries, feel discriminated against. Philadelphia, for example, is struggling to close a projected $137 million budget gap by laying off police and firemen. Finance Director Edward De Seve figures that an end to revenue sharing would cost the city an extra $50 million to $55 million; making up that sum might require a 17% increase in city real estate taxes, on top of a 20% jump already contemplated. De Seve insists that Carter and Congress should target budget cuts on what he derisively calls...
Some 250 striking firemen jammed into a courtroom in Kansas City last week, demanding that they be put in jail. City officials more than obliged, issuing contempt-of-court citations against 700 of the city's 850 firemen, and marching many of them off to the lockup in handcuffs. Angry firemen sabotaged their equipment, stuffing rags into water hoses and pouring sugar into the fuel tanks of their trucks. Most outrageous of all, three fire fighters were charged with setting grass fires while they were on strike. National Guardsmen were called out to protect the police and other substitutes...
...chaos was created by an emotional overreaction on both sides of what should have been a readily resolvable dispute. Its origins dated back to last December, when negotiations on a wage package dawdled and firemen protested for twelve days in a work slowdown, either by calling in sick or refusing to work overtime. The city reacted to the slowdown by firing 42 of the men who disobeyed orders to work beyond their scheduled hours...
...understanding on wages, including a 15% raise in pay over two years. The fire fighters ratified the deal on condition that the 42 men dismissed earlier be reinstated. But City Manager Robert Kipp, supported by an advisory personnel board, refused to do so. Nearly the entire force of firemen then walked...
Circuit Judge Laurence Smith ordered each of the arrested firemen to serve 20 days in jail, pay a fine of $300 and another $16 a day for the meals they were served behind bars. With all the city cells booked up, many of the fire fighters would have to await vacancies before they could serve their time. By week's end Kansas City had handled more than 265 alarms without loss of life, but arson in the city had risen alarmingly. At that point, a judge ordered the reinstatement of the 42 dismissed men; to universal relief, the fire...