Houston fire union president claims over 400 fire fighters will be demoted

HOUSTON, Texas - The president of the Houston firefighters union is speaking out against a city ordinance that was passed yesterday. He says that the vote in favor to layoff over 220 Houston Fire Fighters is much worse than it seems.

According to Marty Lancton, it’s adding insult to injury in a long standing battle between the City of Houston and the Houston Professional Fire Fighters Association. The demotion of over 400 fire fighters in addition to the layoffs that are two months away, all because of the implementation on Proposition B.

“This is something that should alarm everybody, and if the council members were complicit in this I am calling for an ethics investigation,” says Lancton who claims they were not involved in the discussion about the City Ordinance to lay-off 220 fire fighters. 

He says the ordinance that was passed is something different then what was sold to some of the council members.

“What they in fact did was agree to demote 430 approximate firefighters on top of the 220 layoffs.“

Lancton later clarified his numbers saying it was 454 demotions across all divisions.  We reached out to the Mayor’s Office, his spokesperson responded saying:

“The ordinance passed by City Council Wednesday is the only official action taken and the only official document that explains the city’s actions, the facts matter and neither Mayor Turner or the fire chief  have presented information regarding demotions in the fire department.”

Lancton continues to stand by his numbers that those who will remain on the force will receive less pay saying “I am in utter shock that the deceit of this administration and the lack of transparency.”

Meanwhile mediation between Houston’s Fire Fighters Union and the City on how to implement Proposition B will continue a week from today.