So, long story short, this winery owner in Sonoma County raises a ruckus by pointing out the high salaries and pretty decent pension plans that his local firefighters are getting, and thinks they are unfair.Opinion > Letters To The Editor
FIREFIGHTERS HAVE IT GOOD
Friday, April 09, 2010
Editor: American Canyon firefighters’ negotiations are a joke.
I thought I was doing well in the wine business. Had I had any real brains I would have become a firefighter. What a racket they have.
While I respect the work they do and the inherent dangers, they are greatly overpaid, work only two days a week (a third of which they sleep) and get to retire at 50 years old at 90 percent of their pay after working 30 years.
But maybe getting paid 90 percent of one’s maximum pay for another 25-30 years for doing nothing isn’t so unjust, as they received high salaries for working very little before they retired.
Of course, most of them supplement that high pay with second jobs to allay the boredom, as they have so much free time on their hands.
I don’t blame the firefighters. Good for them for getting as much as they can. The blame goes to the politicians and the government administrators. What do they care? It isn’t their money.
The blame also goes to the public (myself included) which is either ill-informed, too apathetic or too afraid to rock the boat to act. No wonder governments are going broke and our taxes are so high.
If I had run my two wineries like this I would have gone broke years ago.
Where do I sign up to be a firefighter? I can do that job two days a week and run my two wineries on the side. What a deal. I can’t wait.
And the American Canyon negotiators seemed to be content to be raising the retirement age to a whopping 55 for new recruits. They should be really proud of themselves.
Dario Sattui
Vintner
The guy then posts a follow up on the winery Facebook page, http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_i ... 4271920402
criticizing the firefighters union, and comparing the situation to the city of Vallejo, where he alleges high public employee benefits/salaries helped contribute to the city's bankruptcy.
I'm always torn on these issues, since I have nothing against a robust public sector, and think most conservative/libertarian arguments in favor of free markets and privatization to be bunk, but still...how many cities can realistically afford those huge salaries? Recessions naturally make people in the private sector resentful of public employees, and I just have a hard time swallowing those 6 figure salaries for public employees.
Of course on the other other hand firefighters perform a necessary, dangerous and demanding job, and I doubt they are all lazy union bums. Though I don't see too many people supporting exorbitant pay increases for the military, for example.