13 News first told you about problems that sparked between the city and fire fighters last week when the city released details of the negotiations of the fire fighters' contract. If fighting for a new contract was like fighting a fire, the head of the union agrees the city just added fuel to the flames. "It's not just the contract," says president of the Topeka branch of the International Association of Fire Fighters, Kent Dederick, "there's no trust there, there's no faith in their abilities to lead and manage this department."

Dederick led dozens of fire fighters in what they call an "informative picket" on city hall. "We're not out to break the City of Topeka," Dederick says, "we just want to be treated fairly." Dederick says fair means an 11% salary increase. The city offered that 11%, but requested 11 concessions in return; concessions the fire fighters just couldn't agree to. "There are certain working conditions we hold very dear, not just for our benefit, but for the benefit of the citizens," says Lt. Randy Phillips of the Topeka Fire Department, "those just aren't negotiable." And when city officials made negotiations public last week, firefighters said the city team broke the rules..

"There are rules set up prior to negotiations that both sides agreed to," Dederick says, "and the city has violated those ground rules." "Frustration is the key word," says Phillips of the situation, "you get to a point where you have to take a stand and that's part of our job, we want to show we're united in this and we hope this might open some eyes and make things move forward." City officials would not talk with 13 News about the picketing Monday, but say they'd wait to see what firefighters had to say. 13 News hopes to have some comment from the city Tuesday.