Union officials representing Chicago firefighters and Mayor Richard Daley announced Monday that they have reached a tentative contract agreement that will run through next June.
The proposal calls for a total pay increase of 13 percent dating back to 1991 when the last contract expired, requires the rank and file to begin making annual contributions of 1 percent of their pay for family health insurance, and includes work rules changes that will produce some financial savings to the city.
Dan Fabrizio, president of Chicago Fire Fighters Local 2, predicted that union members will promptly ratify the pact.
The settlement would be retroactive to Dec. 31, 1991, the day the last contract expired. The 4,000 firefighters and 600 paramedics have been working without a contract since then.
According to Daley, the $65 million proposal, which will not require tax hikes to finance, translates into a 3 percent raise for 1992, a 4 percent hike covering 1993, 4 percent for 1994, and 2 percent for the first half of 1995.
Daley said the average retroactive paycheck will be $8,831.
The firefighters will also keep what has been dubbed “Daley Days”, a phrase based on the largess of the mayor’s late father, Mayor Richard J. Daley. Under the father’s mayoral reign, firefighters were given a paid day off for every five days they work.
However, the 600 paramedics will lose their “Daley Days” in exchange for overtime pay. Under the old contract, paramedics worked the same shifts as firefighters, 24 hours on and 48 hours off. Under the new proposal, they work 24 hours, receive overtime for excess hours on their shifts, and then take 72 hours off.
While paramedics have been demanding cross-training to be instituted within the department to achieve equality, the new contract calls for only 10 percent of each new firefighter class to be cross-trained.
City officials said firefighters on average will make $48,700 a year if they approve the new contract; paramedics slightly less.
Throughout the negotiations over a new contract, money was not the key issue. Union negotiators had instead, haggled over work rules and job protection.
Under the old contract, the city was allowed to reduce the number of firefighters assigned to 15 trucks each day to four from the traditional five.
Under the new settlement, manpower levels can be reduced from five to four on 30 trucks each day.
