Boston, Nov 5 (THAINDIAN NEWS) Firefighter’s union President Edward Kelly is now facing a lot of flak, over his unsuccessful effort to unseat the Boston Mayor Thomas Menino.

“There is a hunger for new leadership,” said a 52-year-old firefighter who asked his name to be withheld. “We have waited long enough for a contract, and this plan clearly did not work.”

They said that, “ Edward Kelly had failed to secure his members a contract in contentious talks with Menino and then spent more than $150,000 on advertising in its failed attempt to oust the mayor”.

The firefighters are angry and upset over the money that Edward Kelly used to sponsor his candidate for the Mayoral race and that too unsuccessfully. They are angry because they have worked without a contract and an increase in payment for more than three years. However the administration offers another side of the story that the fire fighters have had a fair and a decent deal, as they have offered them a 14 percent salary hike over four years.

“We have lost out on that money,” said another veteran jake. “It’s three years now. Times are bad. It’s concerning. You need to build bridges, not walls.”

Edward Kelly offered no regrets on his election role yesterday. “The Boston firefighters stood together,” he said. “Unfortunately our candidate did not win, but we showed that we are willing to stand up to get true reform.”