Une chroniqueuse ontarienne révèle les salaires des pompiers d’une petite municipalité. “A nation of $100,000 firefighters”
Margaret Wente
Au Québec, pas l’ombre d’une idée; les journalistes ne posent pas la question et les maires ne disent rien et refilent la facture aux citoyens. Pendant les négociations, les pompiers s’abritent sous la feuille de vigne ” Nous ne négocions pas sur la place publique”.
Thorold is a middle-class town of 18,500 in southwestern Ontario. It has maybe 10 or 15 fires a year, the mayor figures. But although its 18 firefighters don’t have much to do, they make big-city money. An arbitrator recently awarded them a retroactive 9.2 per cent raise that bumped their pay to $92,119.
Municipalities that resist the union’s demands can go to arbitration. But they virtually never win. Arbitrators simply hand the union whatever the last guys got.
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I have respect for firefighters. They’re brave people and they do their jobs well, so far as I know. But their union is far too powerful for the public good. The arbitration system is broken, too. Although arbitrators are supposed to consider a town’s ability to pay, in fact they don’t.
