City ordered to pay $6.7M to firefighters' fund

A Common Pleas Court judge on Wednesday ordered the Nutter administration to pay $6.7 million into the firefighters' union health-care fund, which has shrunk during a four-year contract dispute with the city.

Judge Idee C. Fox also ordered the city to increase its contribution to the fund by about $350 per member, an amount the union said would cost about an additional $1 million a month.

The judge, however, denied the request by Local 22 of the International Association of Fire Fighters to force the Nutter administration to fully implement the arbitration award firefighters won in 2010.

The administration maintains the award would cost $200 million over five years and twice has appealed to the courts, saying the city cannot afford it.

The latest appeal is scheduled to be heard Sept. 11 in Commonwealth Court, the last stop before the state Supreme Court. A ruling could come before the end of the year.

Meanwhile, Local 22 said the health-care fund had dwindled from $28 million in 2009 to $2 million, and members were going to have to pay from $300 to $400 more per month or face benefit cuts.

Joseph D. Schulle, the newly elected president of Local 22, said the city's strategy was "to bankrupt health and welfare and force us to cave in."

Fox made her ruling from the bench Wednesday after hearing testimony, promising a written order later. Schulle said such a quick ruling was not expected.

"It will allow us to continue to battle through the courts without our guys worrying about losing some benefits," he said.

Nutter described Fox's ruling as a "split decision," since the judge did not say the city had to honor the rest of the arbitration award. He did not say whether the city planned to comply with or appeal Fox's order. "We'll take a look at it. It just happened a couple hours ago," he said. "We'll evaluate that as we do everything else and make a decision relatively soon."

The firefighters have been without a new contract since 2009. The 2010 arbitration award would have covered a four-year period ending last month.

Local 22 and the city are scheduled Monday to start a series of arbitration hearings for the firefighters' next four-year contract.

Schulle said those hearings could be complicated by not having settled the previous contract, since the two sides do not have an agreed-upon starting point for negotiations over wages and benefits.

"No one knows quite what to do," he said.