As the result of the Air Force lowering minimum staffing requirements for its fire departments, 11 Vance Air Force Base firefighters have been notified they will be laid off.

Union official Jerry McCune confirmed the layoff Wednesday. Ten firefighters will be laid off immediately when the lowered staffing minimum goes into effect, he said, while one currently is on medical leave of absence.

The Vance firefighters are employees of CSC Applied Technologies LLC, the base’s primary civilian contractor. Gary Richardson, CSC program manager at Vance, could not be reached for comment. Caroline Longanecker, senior manager of communications for CSC’s North America public sector, likewise could not be reached Wednesday afternoon.

“The Air Force’s directed transformation of fire department services has been implemented in the Vance Air Force Base contract. This includes new, lower, minimum staffing requirements effective April 27, 2009,” read an e-mailed statement from 2nd Lt. Agneta Murnan, Vance’s public affairs chief.

The Air Force’s Fire Emergency Services Concept of Operations, which included the staffing reductions, was announced in August 2007 in a letter from Gen. John Corley, then Air Force vice chief of staff. The goal, Corley wrote, was to “provide adequate fire emergency services while reducing the number of firefighters and meeting PBD 720 (Program Budget Decision 720) goals.

“Our new CONOPS emphasizes fire prevention, early intervention at fires, cross-manning of selected vehicles, continued leveraging of technology and the allocation of resources based on accepted risk management practices,” the letter continued.

The Vance firefighters facing layoff are members of International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers Local Lodge 898. McCune, president and directing business representative for IAMAW District Lodge 171, which oversees Local Lodge 898, called the layoffs unfortunate.

“We don’t necessarily agree with it, but it was the decision of the Air Force to reduce the minimum manning,” McCune said. “The company was within its legal and legitimate right to reduce manning by seniority.”

In executing the layoffs, McCune said, CSC was “in compliance with the collective bargaining agreement. In this time of layoffs and job loss, we wish it did not happen.”

CSC laid off employees at Vance twice in 2008, cutting 30 positions in June and 42 in August.

The company’s three-year collective bargaining agreement with IAMAW Local Lodge 898 expires at midnight June 7. Despite the recent layoff, coupled with the layoffs in 2008, McCune said he is optimistic about the upcoming contract negotiations between CSC and the union.

“Labor relations have improved,” McCune said. “I hope we will go into the negotiations cycle in a positive manner. We have had a lot of problems, but I think we have turned it around. I feel in a positive mood that we can now move on to the negotiating cycle to hammer out an agreement and achieve a good contract.”

In February 2008, Department of Defense awarded a $482 million contract to CSC to continue providing aircraft maintenance and base operating services at Vance. CSC has been the primary contractor at Vance since December 2002, when it purchased DynCorp Technical Services for $950 million.