The San Jose Fire Fighters Union Local 230 released details Tuesday of what they are willing to give up to help the city make its budget.
You can read the proposal for yourself at this link.The union calls the proposal unprecedented because it not only includes a wage freeze, it also has a 10-percent reduction in wages for the budget years 2011/2012 and 2012/2013. The proposal says the compensation savings is "inclusive of health care concessions." For example, the members will pay a higher co-pay.
Union president Jim Welch says what really makes the proposal unprecedented is the fact that it has a two tier retirement sytem. He says this would be the first public employee agreement that had such a system in the entire country.
The cap of retirement pay is now 75-percent. Welch says he hopes that when the deal is complete the city will be able to rehire the fire fighters who were laid off last year.
The proposal also comes with retirement concessions.
The city council has to approve it and then the union members have to ratify it before this is a done deal. One city council member told NBC Bay Area reporter Damian Trujillo say the proposal was "very significant."
