Detroit to Cut Firefighter Jobs

When it comes to jobs in civil service the traditional wisdom is that they whether the storms of the recession better than those of us who work in the private sector. After all they are not as windblown on the profits of a company as the expectations of the shareholders, as those in the private sector are. Add to that the fact that some civil service workers perform what our society considers vital work, such as educating the young, keeping us all safe from the less than ethical element that walks among and putting out fires, and you see how it goes. For the most people in these kinds of jobs have been hard to get rid of in the past economic downturns. This time however the rules seem to have gone out of the window as cities, states and nations have been laying off civil servants in order to set their budgets to right.

Well it looks like the city of Detroit is one of those areas. The city has sent out a notice, showing that 164 workers in the fire department will be getting laid off. These job cuts, which will be made to actually firefighters and not to administrative or support staff are going to go into effect by the end of the month of July. The plan will also move or condense the remaining workers, and will close 16 fire houses.

Interestingly enough at the same time the city is getting ready to cut back on the jobs of fire fighters they are lauding them for their performance. In a press release put out by the city the workers were cited well for responding to a rash of early morning fires, “The Detroit Fire Department fought approximately 10 structure fires on the city’s east side on Monday morning, June 25, between the hours of 1:30 a.m. and 5:30 a.m.  There were seven dwelling fires, one of which was occupied, one house exposure and one church exposure — buildings that were too close to burning structures and caught on fire.  There was also one commercial building fire.”

This is not the first time, in recent months that we have heard about the job cuts in the city of Detroit. For those of you missed out on our earlier coverage here is an excerpt that will get you up to speed in no time at all, “Dave Bing, the mayor for the city of Detroit has finally laid out an official budget that is designed to set right the fiscal crater that the city currently finds itself in. The budget is designed to trim out about $250 million from the budget for the city. Sadly one of those cost cutting measures will require letting go of city workers. Roughly 2,500 workers will have to be given the pink slip in order for this plan to work out…First on the block is public transportation. If the proposal goes through the city would privatize it in order to save money. Next up are the  firefighters who will be retrained to act as the city’s first responders as well, implying heavily that other first responders will be cut back on. Other departments are on the table for closures, reductions in services and consolidations, though at the current moment the names of departments on the block have not been mentioned.  Currently the City Council members believe that only the police force and the fire department are going to be spared from the current wave of cuts.”