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Jan. 14--A judge has vacated another arbitration award -- this time at City Hall's request -- that would have given retroactive pay raises to Buffalo's firefighters.
That means a complicated, nearly decade-long fight continues over their wages for the period 2002 to 2004.
An arbitration ruling announced last April would have given the firefighters a 2.1 percent raise retroactive to July 1, 2002, coupled with a 3.4 percent increase dating to July 1, 2003.
At the time, the fire union estimated that its members were due at least $9 million, with many firefighters likely to receive $14,000 to $20,000 in retroactive pay.
In addition to vacating the award, State Supreme Court Justice John A. Michalek also dismissed the firefighters' challenge to the city's control board, or the Buffalo Fiscal Stability Authority.
The judge ruled, in effect, that the control board's wage freeze in April 2004 applied to any and all raises granted to firefighters, even if those raises were for a period before the wage freeze was instituted and even if they were for a period before the control board existed, said Jonathan
G. Johnsen, an attorney for Local 282, Buffalo Professional Firefighters Association.
"The Buffalo firefighters are disappointed that there is still no resolution to this matter," Johnsen said.
Without a contract since 2002, "there seems to be no end to the court proceedings," Johnsen said Friday.
The fire union has not decided what to do next, he said. Options include appealing Michalek's ruling or pursuing a resolution through another arbitration panel.
"The firefighters will selflessly continue to serve the public as they have in the past 10 years, even though they have had only a single pay raise of 5.5 percent in over 10 years and the city is threatening to take away that raise," Johnsen said. "The firefighters of the City of Buffalo deserve better. They deserve pay increases commensurate with the risks they take every day."
"This is a big win for City of Buffalo taxpayers," Matthew C. Van Vessem, the attorney retained by the city government in the case, said of the judge's ruling. "It is a very significant decision that will result in the saving of millions of dollars for city taxpayers."
Van Vessem, of the law firm of Goldberg and Segalla, stressed that the Michalek ruling "is a complete win for the city."
"The judge looked at the union's claims and found no merit to them," he added.
It was the fire union that in 2006 successfully challenged the first arbitration panel's original award in July 2005.
Johnsen said firefighters opposed that award -- from an arbitration panel led by Thomas N. Rinaldo-- because it improperly forced them into a health insurance plan picked by the city. The courts, including the State Court of Appeals, agreed and vacated the original award.
"The firefighters could not have known at the time they challenged the original award that they would win their case yet find themselves further behind," Johnsen said.
Michalek's ruling this week vacates the award from a second arbitration panel, also led by Rinaldo, at the city's request.
"The award of the Rinaldo II panel is arbitrary and capricious, exceeds the panel's authority, is not consistent with due process, lacks a rational basis and violates or disregards plain and clear existing law, and therefore must be vacated," Michalek said in his decision.
"In issuing the same award as to wage increases as did the Rinaldo I award without making any award as to health insurance, the Rinaldo II panel disregarded the clear determination and dictate of the Court of Appeals," the judge said.
As for his control board-related ruling, Michalek said the fire union already unsuccessfully challenged the 2004 wage freeze.
"The Supreme Court has already found and the [appellate court] has affirmed that the four-month statute of limitations to challenge the wage freeze resolution began to run when the [control board] passed that resolution on April 21, 2004," Michalek said.
News Staff Reporter Matt Gryta contributed to this report. [email protected]
