The daily morning journal and courier., 1896-05-18
FOR MORE VACATION DAYS
NEW HAVEN FIREMEN MUCH IN-
 TERESTED AND DISCUSSING

The Action of Bridgeport's Fire Commis-
 sioners Increasing the Vacation Days to Forty-three Days Year Including One
 Outing of Ten Days at Time-May Make
 Similar Request Here.
 New Haven firemen are taking much
 interest in the recent action of the Bridgeport fire department allowing the
 members of the department ten days
 vacation annually in addition to three
 vacation days month The total of
 vacation days for the year to be allow
 ed Is forty-three days. When the ten days outing is taken the three days monthly allowance is counted as part
 of it. and this Is accomplished without
 a cent of extra expense to the taxpay- CTS. New Haven firemen who have
 been spoken to in the matter say this
 action of the Bridgeport authorities is most just and worthy of praise, the New Haven fireman's vacation privi- lege being just forty-eight hours a { month. while their working time is sev- X en days a week-no off duty Sundays, \ and their daily working time being twenty one hours out of twenty-four, that being the time that they are away from their homes and actually on duty. This limits the time that fireman can X call his own for cultivating the ac- quaintance of his family to an exceed ingly small figure Then, taking the f1reman's exposure to the elements, X cold, heat, rain, ice, snow, etc, when on duty at fires, and the frequent impertl- { ling of life and limb they are subject to-, and add to this the dismal monotony v of being cooped up in an engine house twenty one hours a day out of twenty four, and 1t will be seen that the life of the fireman Is not an enviable one, by any means. The firemen say also that they were not aware until reading the Bridgeport Unions article telling of the { action of the Bridgeport fire depart < ment authorities that there are twenty N cities where the firemen are allowed forty-three days a year for vacation days. The article in the Union is as E follows:
 After June the permanent mem- K bers of the fire department, those who are on duty twenty-four each day, will M have three days off monthly and an \ annual vacation of ten days. They now fy have two days off duty every month, RI with no vacation. Under the new rule @ they will receive forty-three days off @ yearly, three days of the ten days va E cation being charged up to the month E in which the vacation is taken. E NThe new rule was adopted by the k fire commissioners May Il after a for E nal request for the change of rules E3 from the permanent men was read. The IA request was embodied in a communica- E ton setting forth the circumstances
 surrounding the daily lives of the men, x who are confined to their engine houses K constantly It was unanimously voted k to accede to the request.
 # soThe good luck of the men will not
 be begrudged them. All but a few of
 the. permanent men are married and families, and under the most fla Favorable circumstances can spent but &at two nights month under their own ESroofs. If a fireman should decide to
 sbunch' his days off and take a week
 at once 1t would be three months be- #sfore he could again spend an evening in
 the society of his family.
 The commissioners found that by
 changing the routine of the work of
 N the relief men the extra vacation could ] be given the men without any extra
 expense to the city. They have before them the precedent established by
 twenty other cities"
 There is some talk that a formal re-
 Aquest to the New Haven commission"
 CTS is to be framed and presented to 5them by the men, requesting that sim
 liar action to that in Bridgeport be talk
 len here.