Suit Filed by Group Angers Firefighters

ATLANTA - Current and retired Atlanta firefighters are demonstrating outside a posh Buckhead gathering spot.

The firefighters are angry at a Buckhead civic group that has filed legal action trying to reign in city pension costs.

The firefighters picketed at lunchtime outside a swank Buckhead gathering where a Fulton County taxpayer group is at a luncheon.

At issue  - the group has taken the city to court over the cost of retiree benefits that city leaders acknowledge will financially cripple Atlanta government.

In a statement, Jim Dawes - head of the firefighters union - called the action of the group "mean-spirited."

Barbara Payne - head of the Fulton County Taxpayer's Foundation - said the lawsuit is not a slap in the face of firefighters. Payne went on to say that firefighters will not lose their pensions.

She said it's an attempt to get the city's finances back in order.