The city of Tallahassee and the local firefighters’ union have reached a temporary agreement on raises that would start October 1st – but it’s only part of the overall contract.
The temporary agreement between the city and the firefighters covers wages. Under the deal, the entry-level rank of firefighters would see their salaries upped by 10-and-a-half percent. Engineers, lieutenants, captains and battalion chiefs would get boosts of no less than 4 percent.
There are still a LOT more issues left to be ironed out. And a vote won't be taken on until the rest of the items have been settled.
On Thursday the city’s negotiators said they’d made their last best offer on a raise.
Union president Joey Davis says it’s unclear how the firefighters will vote.
“We’re coming close to October 1st, and our men and women – they’re concerned about going past October 1st given the fact that they weren’t able to get any sort of retroactivity last time around," said Davis. "And they missed out on a lot of pay.”
The latest round of contract talks follows a failed one-year contract negotiation for the fiscal year that will end September 30th. The city refused to allow those talks to include retroactive pay, instead saying everything would be on the table for the three-year contract.
