City set to short change local heroes
Firefighters in Greensboro are facing the indefinite loss of pay raises if the city manager's budget proposal is adopted by council. Longevity pay, a 1% raise for every 5 years of service up to 5% max, would be frozen for all city employees. For the average firefighter who already earns less in total compensation than other city employees, the city's plan to do away with longevity raises would mean a loss of $350 in pay annually, Chief Gregory Grayson told WFMY News 2:
"Our folks are motivated by the need to serve and want to help people primarily," said Grayson. "But they also have bills to pay and families to support."
WFMY reports that "firefighters have already gone two or three years without pay raises." Watch the video:
Firefighters are among the first responders whom lives and property depend on during an emergency. They are dedicated public servants who are prepared to make the ultimate sacrifice to save others. The least the City of Greensboro can do is honor the promise it made to these workers when it hired them - reward those who stick with the job and not take away their longevity pay.
Update: Firefighters lost
At their Tuesday, June 8 meeting, Greensboro City Council refused to put longevity pay back on the table and rejected the idea of doing a study of firefighter compensation. The pay is set to expire for all city workers on June 30.
"We were hoping the longevity would not be frozen, and also for the compensation study," Greensboro firefighter and IAFF Local 947 member, Dave Coker, told WFMY News 2. "It's just disappointing."
"We're just going to keep pushing on tomorrow, tonight. We're going to put our turnout boots on the same way. We're going to get on the rig the same way. And we're going to give the citizens the world-class service they deserve regardless of whether we got this or whether we didn't."