Peoria City Council OKs firefighter labor contract

Two of three contentious labor negotiations in Peoria are resolved.

The City Council unanimously approved a new labor contract with its firefighters association on Tuesday.

This leaves the Peoria Police Officers Association as the only remaining union with which the city is still trying to work out a deal.

The two-year contract with the Peoria Firefighters Association gives eligible firefighters a 2.5 percent merit pay raise in the first year and 5 percent in the second.

Additionally, the city in- creased the firefighters’ pay scale 2.5 percent this year and will bump it up by 1 percent next year. The market adjustments are to keep Peoria competitive with other cities, according to city officials. Firefighters will receive the retroactive market increases in their next paychecks. The merit increases take effect on the firefighters’ hire-anniversary date.

The ongoing cost over the next two years for the agreement is $564,952.

The firefighters last spring declared they had reached an impasse, but the two sides struck a deal with the help of a mediator.

Councilman Carlo Leone said he was glad the firefighters and city worked out an agreement.

The association membership ratified the contract this month.

“It’s reasonable for the firefighters, it’s reasonable for the taxpayers,” association President Joe Manning said. “Clearly, there were some other issues at the table. Our position was different from city staff. We went through mediation, we crafted out an agreement, so in the end, it’s reasonable.”

Manning and Human Resources Director Julie Ayers described the negotiations as challenging.

Manning declined to discuss specifics, but Ayers said the disagreement was over wages.

She said firefighters wanted a similar contract to the one that expired in June, which included annual 5 percent merit raises. The City Council had directed staff to negotiate a 3.5 percent merit increase, Ayers said.

Under the new agreement, firefighters can average 3.75 percent merit increases over two years. Mayor Bob Barrett said he and the City Council shoulder some of the blame for three of the four union negotiations going to impasse.

The City Council had approved 5 percent raises for all city employees last year as a thank-you for their patience during the pay freezes of the recession. That set a “bad precedent,” Barrett said.

Barrett said the latest deal was fair for both sides.