'Do we have to concede whatever the other bargaining units come up with?'

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Brian Scott, President of the Firefighters union in Evanston, Illinois delivered and powerful message to the Evanston City Council on Monday, June 21, 2010. City Manager Wally Bobkiewicz is trying to lay off 3 firefighters/paramedics in a bid to exert unfair pressure on the union as it tries to bargain in good faith on a new contract. "I was told", Brian Scott told the meeting, "that as long as you go along with whatever the police officers were awarded in arbitration, just go with whatever AFSCME settled with a couple weeks later, this all will go away. Is this how the city now negotiates in good faith? We're going to lay off firefighters for arbitrations that haven't begun, for awards that don't even exist? In the future is the City going to start off every contract negotiation with laying off a couple of firefighters just in case things don't go their way? Are we allowed to negotiate our own contracts, or do we have to kind of just concede whatever the other bargaining units come up with, or else?" President Brian Scott's full speech. 6 min.

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