The ongoing labor dispute between Auburn and its firefighters is moving toward a resolution.

A state arbitrator will settle the affair, once and for all.

Last year, around this time, the city and the union that represents its firefighters signed a new contract. The deal promised a 2 percent raise, which was scheduled to take effect in July, for the 61 firefighters covered by the deal. The city, citing changing economic circumstances, refused to honor the arrangement.

Both sides have agreed to abide by the arbitrator’s decision and a ruling is expected by the end of March.

The union’s complaint against the city is justified and we believe the firefighters deserve the guaranteed raise. But it had become obvious that taking the case to a third party was the only hope for resolution.

This derisive fight has gone on long enough. Both the city and the firefighters’ union show wisdom in seeking its end.

There’s no way to know, at this point, how the arbitrator will rule. But once the decision has been made, it will be up to city and union leaders to repair the ill will that has been allowed to fester for almost a year.

Real work remains to be done, but at least it’s been started.


Battling the clock


The day after the Wisconsin primary, Sen. John Edwards found himself turning a defeat into a victory while former Gov. Howard Dean essentially called it quits.

Powered by the Internet and a gaggle of new activists, the fiery Dean gave the Democratic Party the backbone transplant that now pushes the two men leading the race toward the nomination.

Sen. John Kerry is clearly the front-runner. He’s lost only two contests, one in Oklahoma to retired Gen. Wesley Clark, who has since also retired from the race, and the other to Edwards in South Carolina. That’s 15 for 17.

The bundle of primaries on March 2, which includes New York, Ohio and California, presents a significant hurdle for Edwards. The 10 contests that day are scattered around the country, and the media markets are very expensive. The retail politics that served him well in South Carolina, where he was born, and Wisconsin aren’t likely to work.

But Edwards is calling lemons lemonade. Because polls showed him trailing Kerry by as much as 20 points in Wisconsin, he, and much of the television talking class, is calling his close second a moral victory. He closed the gap to the low single digits. If only there had been more time, he said.

Time, however, is not on his side.

For now, Edwards will get what he wants: A two-person race with Kerry. We’ll see if it matters.
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