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Youngstown firefighters union agrees to a new contract
YOUNGSTOWN
City council is expected Wednesday to approve a new deal with the firefighters union — the last city union working with an expired contract.
The board of control will support the contract at its Thursday meeting, said Mayor John A. McNally, its chairman.
The city’s firefighters union approved the proposal Wednesday by a 70-7 vote, said David Cook, union president.
“We’re happy to have the membership approve it, and I’m recommending city council approve it next Wednesday,” McNally said.
The contract includes salary increases of 2.5 percent that kick in later this month and 1 percent next January, and removes caps on their contributions to health-care premiums starting in June 2016.
The contract is similar to one rejected 91-6 by the union in September.
The union has about 135 members.
The primary reason the proposal was turned down four months ago was the removal of the caps.
Firefighters, like other city employees, pay 10 percent of their health-care premiums, but the caps had them paying no more than $100 a month for single coverage and $200 for family coverage.
The city’s health-insurance policy costs $666 a month for single coverage and $1,678 a month for family coverage. The employees monthly contribution is $66.60 for single coverage and $167.80 for family — below the caps, but union members have expressed concerns about rising insurance costs.
The reason for the change is “with the way things are going, we were up against a mountain we wouldn’t be able to climb,” Cook said.
He is referring to the fact that every other union in the city — except the police patrol officers who had their contract settled through binding arbitration — has agreed to the removal of the health-care caps.
The original proposal had the caps removal take effect in September 2015. This new deal has the caps elimination take effect in June 2016.
After the deal is approved, a 2.5 percent pay raise will be in the next paycheck for the members of the union. The 1 percent raise will take effect Jan. 1, 2016.
The rejected deal had firefighters receiving a 1 percent raise last year, a 1.5 percent raise this year, and 1 percent next year.
The 2.5 percent raise for this year is in line with what other unions received for 2014 and 2015 — 1 percent and 1.5 percent, respectively — and identical to what the Youngstown Ranking Police Officers union received in its contract, approved in late December, that took effect Jan. 1.
Firefighters have worked without a contract since Aug. 31, 2014, and haven’t had a pay raise since 2009.
The new contract will end May 31, 2017, instead of Aug. 31, 2017, Cook said.
The two sides were heading to binding arbitration before striking this deal, said Cook and fire Chief John J. O’Neill Jr.
“Both sides agreed that if we went there, we may get things we don’t want,” O’Neill said. “So we hashed it out.”
“It’s a reasonable agreement,” McNally said. “The caps had to be dealt with. When we start dealing with the patrol union, [caps] will be dealt with right away.”