Little Rock police officers and fire fighters
will forgo a raise for the second time in six months, and take two weeks of vacation instead. Voting on the city's offer to save money ended at midnight, and police voted three to one to give up their raise.
"In this particular budget, the employees came last," says FOP President John Gilchrist.
Sunday, Gilchrist tallied the votes, and the majority of Little Rock's police union members decided, by a three to one margin, to accept the city's offer to delay their four-percent raise until January.
The reason is because of Little Rock's budget problems.
Gilchrist offers this solution, "We'd like to get a commitment from them. Perhaps turn this into an ordinance. Have some city legislation on this. I think that would send a great word to the members."
So, if union members didn't really want to give up their raise, why did they vote to? One reason is that they know taking the city to court would cost a lot.
"I think some people voted on it because they thought it was something good for the economic times. It was a good deal considering those times. Some people voted on it because they thought it might be better than getting nothing at all, " he added.
Gilchrist says those who voted to keep the raise don't have faith in the city to make good on the promise to award the raise next year since it's asked offers to give raises twice now.
Little Rock's firefighters also voted to accept the city's offer of vacation time instead of a raise.
