City and firefighters reach tentative agreements on contracts
The City of Cape Coral and the Cape Coral Professional Firefighters Union Local 2424 have reached tentative contract agreements for both the Fire Battalion Chiefs unit as well as the Fire Rank and File unit.
On Friday, June 3, the City and union representatives agreed to a 3 percent reduction in salary and a 2 percent increase in the employee share of their pension contribution, which will reduce the city’s portion by an equivalent 2 percent.
By reaching agreement on wages and benefits, along with reductions in other areas such as reduced leave accrual, these tentative agreements with the Battalion Chiefs and Firefighters unions will provide an annualized savings to the city of about $1.5 million to $2 million, city officials said.
The wages and benefits concessions agreed to by the fire union are similar to the concessions ratified earlier this year by the City’s Blue, White, Supervisory and Professional units. The agreement with those four bargaining units produced annualized savings of $2.1 million.
“Because of these challenging economic circumstances, this has been a difficult negotiation process for all parties involved,” said City Manager Gary King in a prepared statement. “We recognize and appreciate the financial sacrifices that the City’s union membership have made to help reach agreement and gain some financial relief for the City.”
The City is still continuing negotiations with the Police union.
Source: City of Cape Coral