Kansas City, Missouri finally has a pension deal with MAST ambulance employees. Or more accurately, two pension deals. And an overall contract deal is in the works with Firefighters Local 42, but not official yet.
Ambulance Service Pensions
MAST employees will be able to select from a 401-K-tyle plan or a reduced-value version of the defined benefit plan they used to have when MAST was a separate non-profit corporation.
Since April of 2010, the ambulance service has been a part of the fire department, and it has taken that long for the union and the city to to find a plan they could agree on.
City manager Troy Schulte says the pensions could cost the city up to a million dollars a year, but even factoring in the costs of the pensions, the merger of the ambulance and fire services is saving the city $1.6 million a year.
Limited Assurance on Firefighters Accord
The council also reassured Firefighters Local 42 by resolving to hold hearings on and give fair consideration to a new tentative contract agreement – but stopped short of resolving to urge its members to vote for accepting the contract.