Firefighters reject tentative pact with city

YOUNGSTOWN — The city’s firefighter union overwhelmingly rejected a three-year contract even though it included salary increases for its members for the first time in five years.

The main reason union membership voted down the contract 91 to 6 is health-care expenses, said David Cook, president of the 138-member International Association of Firefighters Local 312.

The contract kept workers’ contributions to their health-care premiums at 10 percent, and would remove caps on the maximum amount an employee could contribute to their premiums by September 2015.

For firefighters, those caps are $100 a month for single coverage and $200 for family coverage.

“The city is overpaying for health care,” Cook said. “The city needs to control health-care costs. We feel it’s the city’s obligation to get health care under control. They need to show an effort to control health care.”

For the complete story, read Friday’s Vindicator and Vindy.com