Sep. 27--The Omaha Firefighters Union and the city are headed to court after the union rejected the city's contract offer.

Union leadership supported the proposed four-year contract, which included new provisions such as employee contributions to health insurance. Firefighters and police pay no premiums now.

Union president Darren Bates said members objected to changes that were proposed by the city and fire management in areas such as job transfer rights, testing for promotions and how work assignments are determined.

He said those noneconomic issues doomed the plan for union members. More than 65 percent of the membership voted against the plan in balloting Wednesday and Thursday, Bates said.

In particular, he said, disagreements between the union and fire management about how promotions should be handled have lowered the morale of the union's rank-and-file members.

Paul Landow, chief of staff for Mayor Mike Fahey, said the city made a "very fair and generous offer," including a 3.85 percent per year wage increase.

Landow said he believes that money is at the heart of the dispute, based on past city dealings with union negotiations. He said "internal political arguments over personnel issues" are secondary.

The city asked that union members start paying health insurance premiums, which civilian city employees already do. The contract would have required firefighters to pay 5 percent of their health insurance premiums, or about $500 a year.

Persuading firefighters and police to pay a percentage of their premiums would help the city save money. Based on 2007 health care figures, the annual savings to the city would be about $622,000.

The proposed firefighter contract also would have ended a practice known as spiking, where firefighters can inflate their pension payouts. The contract was designed to limit how much overtime and compensatory time pay could be added to a firefighter's base salary when calculating pension amounts.

In some cases, firefighters and police have retired with annual pensions that were larger than their base pay. Inflated pensions have contributed to a projected $350 million shortfall in the city's police and fire pension system.

Bates said union members are not against making health insurance contributions or helping to fix the pension system.

But younger firefighters, he said, were concerned about changes in certain retirement benefits and the pay scale that would affect them in later years.

"As a union we want the same benefits for all members," Bates said.

Landow said the city asked that newly hired firefighters also contribute to health insurance when they retire.

"This city can't afford to pay retiree health care insurance without a premium (contribution)," he said.

Numerous fire and police retirements last year increased the number of people that the city insures. City retirees can stay on Omaha's health care plan until they become eligible for Medicare.

So the city is simultaneously paying health care benefits for retirees as well as the new employees hired to replace them.

The firefighters' union will head to the Nebraska Commission of Industrial Relations next month in an attempt to resolve the contract impasse.

Earlier this month, a hearing was held at the labor court on the contract dispute between the Omaha Police Union and the city. The court has not yet issued a ruling in that case.

--Contact the writer: 444-1149, tom.shaw@owh.com

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