Laying off Firefighters in Detroit - Essay Example

Labor Issue - Laying off Decision of 164 firefighters in Detroit Introduction Aftereffects of the recession of 2008 were not even completely mitigated, the threats of double dip recession due to Eurozone debt crisis, have put many of the other governments at the back foot. United States was one of the biggest victims of the global recession of 2008 and therefore the government of United States this time is quite tentative, rather a bit conservative in bringing stimulus to its economy. Even though United States does not possess bankruptcy concerns unlike many of the other European countries, however, the existing United States administration is quite keen in minimizing its public expenditures in order to stabilize its fiscal movements. The overall psyche of United States administrations is developed to cut off their budgets at all levels including federal, state, and local levels. One of the major actions that the administrations generally take being a quick step to cut the expenditures is the slashing of the jobs. This measure simply ends up in getting rid of the “excess fat” from the existing jobs. However, this step brings in more depression and disappointments especially among those who are the direct victims of such actions. The end results of laying offs can prove to be rather severe especially in those areas where there is no room for any dismissal, in fact, more personnel are required to fill the potentially vacant jobs. Laying offs may provide some temporary benefits to the administrations in short rum but in long run it can sabotage morale of the fired employees by and large. Laying off Decision In United States, there are many important departments, which operate their functions under local level administrations. These departments play a significant role in the normal day-to-day operations at the local city level. Policing department and firefighting service departments are some of those departments, which perform their operations under the direct supervision of the local administration. As mentioned above, currently US government at all levels is quite reluctant to boost its economic activities and due to this fact, all the administrations taking all the necessary steps to keep the expenditure level at its minimum. The fiscal budget of Detroit City is aimed at reducing the expenditure by some $250 million with the job cut of around 2,600 employees working in the local departments (FireRescue1, 2012). As far as the firefighting department of Detroit City is concerned, the administration has aimed to cut around $160 million, which is around 13% of the budget. In the same way, the City Mayor of Detroit, Dave Bing has made a public announcement of putting a lay off decision in the firefighting departments, which will result in the loss of jobs for around 164 firefighters (Fleming, Brand-Williams, & Hunter, 2012). It important to note that this action has been taken just after the incident where the firefighters did their splendid job in around 16 buildings, which were set to fire simultaneously. One of the firefighters of that incident also faced serious injury. The Detroit administrations planned to execute this laying off activity at the end July. The above decision has been taken as a measure to combat the financial difficulties and fiscal problems that Detroit administration is currently facing. Cumulatively, there are around 1,257 personnel working in the Detroit firefighting department such that 881 of them are the firefighters, 248 of them are EMS technicians and rest of them take care of the administrative issues in the department (Kelder, 2012). The percentage of the laid off personnel who are actually the firefighters amounts to around 19% which is in fact a large percentage keeping in view the overall city requirement of the firefighters. Response of Firefighting Association The Firefighting Association of Detroit City has showed deep concerns on this move to be taken by the City Mayor. The representative of the association considers this move as not only an unfair move with the dedicated firefighters devoting their lives for the protection of common people but also realizes that the overall safety of the public would be at stake after such measure (Our Tax Dollars At Work, n.d.). According to the opinions provided by the association representative, it seems quite difficult for the firefighters to get new jobs in short term and this can cause severe difficulties for their families (Fleming, Brand-Williams, & Hunter, Detroit union: Layoffs are indefensible, 2012). Firefighting is a considered as a specialized job such that the firefighters work under a monopoly kind of centralized organization, which performs its operations alone in the whole city. So if the firefighters are laid off, either they have to choose either some other occupation or some other city if they are still keen enough to engage themselves with the firefighting services. The other major concern showed up by the association is about the overall safety and protection of the public. It is a general opinion of the association that the existing workforce providing its firefighting service is around 881 in numbers which are still far less in meeting the requirements of the city. Rather than attracting more candidates and selecting new firefighters, the City Mayor has taken totally an opposite measure by shortening the existing number of firefighters. Under this situation, too less number of firefighters is much growing concerns to the firefighting association especially in the times where, there are taking place plenty of such fire incidents. Due to heavy burden and overload of responsibilities, the left off firefighters may feel pressurized in performing their jobs, which can cause mental as well as physical stress and injuries to the firefighters. Lately an incident took place in which a firefighter experienced a major injury just because of the fact he was work overloaded and in fact performing the duties of other firefighters. Remedial Actions Intended by the Mayor On the other hand, the City Mayor has tried to put a defense to his move by announcing the later opportunities that would be available for the laid off firefighters. According to him, as soon as the city’s budget is increased by federal government and some financial assistance is provided in this regard, around 108 firefighters will be restoring their jobs (Fleming, Brand-Williams, & Hunter, 18% of Detroit firefighters face layoffs, 2012). However, this move is still subject to contingency of the federal government assistance. The fate of rest of the 56 laid off firefighters will give them the opportunity with the later attrition process, which would effectively be taking a longer span of time than expected. Concluding Remarks Overall, the action of the City Mayor of Detroit is not considered as a better move to cut the direct expenditures of the city because of the potential financial issues to be faced by the firefighters as well as the gamble played by the mayor in providing public safety to the people (Kelder, 2012). However, as a short-term measure, this move seems to be instantaneous in reducing the city budget. For a greater purpose to be achieved in order to taking the whole city out of the fiscal problems, it is considered as a reasonably improved action to put some families into trouble to avoid the bigger losses and difficulties of the whole city. Hopes should remain alive with the intentions of the mayor regarding the restoration of the jobs and providing decent firefighting services to city. References FireRescue1. (2012, June 25). Detroit announces 164 firefighter layoffs. Retrieved August 04, 2012, from FireRescue1: http://www.firerescue1.com/labor-issues/articles/1306512-Detroit-announces-164-firefighter-layoffs/ Fleming, L. N., Brand-Williams, O., & Hunter, G. (2012, June 26). 18% of Detroit firefighters face layoffs. Retrieved August 04, 2012, from The Detroit News: http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20120626/METRO01/206260357 Fleming, L. N., Brand-Williams, O., & Hunter, G. (2012, June 26). Detroit union: Layoffs are indefensible. Retrieved August 04, 2012, from FireRescue1: http://www.firerescue1.com/labor-issues/articles/1307205-Detroit-union-Layoffs-are-indefensible/ Kelder, K. (2012, June 26). Detroit Firefighter Layoffs. Retrieved August 04, 2012, from Fox17: http://www.fox17online.com/news/fox17-detroit-to-lay-off-164-firefighters-by-end-of-july-20120626,0,147988.story Our Tax Dollars At Work. (n.d.). Broke: Detroit Michigan To Lay Of 164 Firefighters – 19% Of Workforce – Claims It May Be Temporary. Retrieved August 04, 2012, from Our Tax Dollars At Work: https://ourtaxdollarsatwork.wordpress.com/2012/06/26/broke-detroit-michigan-to-lay-of-164-firefighters-19-of-workforce-claims-it-may-be-temporary/ Read More