San Bernardino leaders want to use the California city's bankruptcy to force benefit cuts on the city's firefighters after spending more than two years trying to hash out a compromise deal with its employees, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported today. In court papers, San Bernardino's lawyers asked a bankruptcy judge for permission to throw out the collective bargaining agreement for unionized employees within its fire department — an agreement that city officials said contains expensive promises that the 200,000-resident city can no longer afford.
