MEMPHIS, Tenn. – Things are getting ugly down at City Hall.
Negotiations between the City and the Unions flat-lined midnight Wednesday.
Now it’s the City Council’s job to hammer out a deal.
The union said the city was sending out false numbers to the public about their proposal.
The breakdown was this 40-million dollar figure.
The city said it doesn’t have it.
Well, the fire union said they aren’t asking for that.
They are asking for 100-thousand dollars.
Several council members told WREG they were not surprised this is what it’s coming down to.
Thomas Malone, the head of the Memphis Fire Union, was fuming.
He wouldn’t even refer to the Mayor by his name instead caalling him “Politician Wharton.”
Malone said his men and women wanted to leave because working conditions were that bad.
He said it’s because of the administration.
“This group can’t handle their business. It’s obvious to us it’s obvious to Nashville, and it should start to be getting obvious with the people of this city,” Malone added.
The city was shuffling money around to try and cover pension gaps under state order and rising health care costs.
But after weeks of negotiations, the Wharton Administration said it can’t find money to give city employees a raise.
“We spent over $40-million in corporate welfare for bass pro and international paper and other very rich profitable corporations.” he said.
However, Wharton found an extra $150-thousand to hire a new Chief Administrative Officer while shifting current CAO George Little to a new role with the same salary.
Malone said all his firefighters want is a total of $100-thousand next year.
“What we were trying to do with the 2016 budget was give our employees a little taste of something they haven’t had since this group has been in office.” he said.
City Council Members tell WREG they were not surprised this issue was dumped on their plate.
They said this is an example of a current lack of leadership.
Wanda Halbert added,” There is absolutely no way we can talk about this issue without effectively negotiating at the table together.”
Malone pointed out that these kind of negotiations were what brought Martin Luther King to Memphis back in 1968.
He said he hopes everyone will keep him in mind while they work out the next steps in these negotiations.