Chicago Firefighters Ratify New Contract
CHICAGO (STMW) -- By a nearly 8-to-1 margin, Chicago firefighters and paramedics voted Wednesday to ratify a new contract that gives them a 10 percent pay raise over five years in exchange for manpower changes that will help the city reduce overtime costs.
The final vote was 3,036 to 421.
"We feel we did the right thing as an executive board and the members [agreed] with conviction. ...They feel we did pretty good in this economic environment," said Michael O'Neill, secretary-treasurer of the Chicago Firefighters Union Local 2.
As for the union's concession on a staffing issue that triggered the bitter 1980 firefighters strike, O'Neill said, "There's some give-and-take on both sides. That was the one giving part. But it would have been much worse than going down another road" to arbitration.
The contract calls for the elimination and reassignment of a fire company currently assigned to the repair shop to provide what the city calls a "cushion" against overtime.
Chicago taxpayers would also get cost-saving flexibility in the requirement that there be five employees on every piece of fire apparatus. That's the issue that triggered the 1980 strike.
The city is currently allowed to dip below that requirement 30 times each day. Under the new contract, the number of so-called "variances" would rise to 35 times a day. In addition, firefighters who go home sick during their shift would need not automatically be replaced.
If a firefighter "lays up" and leaves work after 1 p.m. — five hours into a 24-hour shift — his or her fire company would be free to operate with four employees, instead of five. Those instances do not count toward the daily variances.
Earlier this year, Chicago taxpayers dodged a fiscal bullet when an independent arbitrator awarded Chicago Police officers a 10 percent pay raise over five years, their smallest five-year increase in nearly three decades.
As expected, the firefighters contract that expires on June 30, 2012 includes the same pay raise provisions.
It also calls for an increase in so-called "duty availability" pay — from $730-per-quarter to $805. Firefighters cross-trained and certified as emergency medical technicians would receive a 5 percent incentive bonus, up from the current 4 percent.
Like police officers, firefighters would be free to retire with full health benefits at age 55. But they would have to wait until November 2011, and then the number of firefighters who take advantage of the perk would be capped at 50 in 2011 and 150 in succeeding years to give the city sufficient lead time to address staffing needs.
The share of promotions based on merit — long a sore point with the rank-and-file — would remain at 16 percent.
City Hall pegged the cost of the police contract at $385 million and borrowed $160 million to bankroll the back pay. The cost of the firefighters contract was not known. Nor was it clear whether the city would need to do similar short-term borrowing.
(Source: Sun-Times Media Wire © Chicago Sun-Times 2010. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
