OGDENSBURG — The city is asking its firefighter union to take another look at a previously rejected offer that involves staffing and hazard pay changes.
The deal would include increasing the number of firefighters on a shift to five in 2023, and decreasing hazard pay for the remainder of this year and cutting it entirely in 2023 and beyond. The changes are the latest in a number of offers the city has proposed to the union over the last two years.
The firefighter union, Ogdensburg Professional Firefighters Local 1799, is holding firm to its current contract. The Local 1799 contract is valid through 2025.
City Manager and Fire Chief Stephen P. Jellie issued a press release detailing the offer and containing a letter sent to Local 1799 President Jason T. Bouchard, telling firefighters that the city is in “the midst of an economic revival and it is incumbent upon all of us to do our very best to accelerate those efforts and to solidify the sustainment of the city’s economic strength.”
The city’s offer seeks to reduce hazard pay from $6 to $3 per hour for the remainder of 2022, as long as daily minimum staffing does not drop below four firefighters; eliminate hazard pay from 2023 to 2025, as long as daily minimum staffing does not drop below five firefighters; reduce firefighters on scheduled vacation/comp block leave from two per day to one; and forego the EMT Stipend through 2025.
The city also wants to modify the department’s organization structure in the contract to one chief, one deputy chief, four captains and 16 firefighters for the remainder of the contract.
The city previously offered a deal on Feb. 25, “as an alternative to continued litigation and arbitration,” Mr. Jellie said, adding that the offer “remains on the table for negotiation and, although you initially rejected it swiftly, I ask you to thoughtfully reconsider and work collectively with the city toward a solution that will cease the unnecessary legal expense to taxpayers and IAFF Local 1799 members.”
“The city’s offer affords IAFF Local 1799 all the critical safety factors for the public and your members that you have stated on many occasions is your priority,” Mr. Jellie wrote to the union. “If IAFF Local 1799 continues to reject this proposal, I must ask, what are your intentions?”
The offer, according to Mr. Bouchard, will not be accepted by the union. He asks that the city honor its contract and keep its promise to the union’s membership.
“Seems our city manager/fire chief yet again wants to openly violate our contract? He then asks us to formulate a new agreement with him? Doesn’t anyone see a problem here? We are honoring the deal we signed and are done being harassed,” Mr. Bouchard said. “We signed a deal. The city signed a deal. One side has kept their promise.”
The union president said that if the city honored its contract, then “maybe you’d get a deal.”
“But to continually shame a unit who already has a contract is the opposite of good faith. And we are now being harassed,” Mr. Bouchard said.
If the Local 1799 accepted the contractual changes, Mr. Jellie said the city will maintain the minimum four firefighters on a shift for 2022. After enough new personnel graduate from the first available fire academy training in 2023, the minimum staffing level would increase to five firefighters through 2025, and the city would maintain 20 work shift positions for the balance of the contract’s term.
The press release also included information on a new policy change, effective April 1, to reduce the amount of hazard pay firefighters receive from $6 to $3 per member per hour, “based on current staffing levels and the impossibility to increase staffing levels so as to assign 6 members per work group in the near future.”
The contract provides that the additional $3 per hour “will not be paid until the start date of the first available recruit training course, following a reduction in assigned shift members,” Mr. Jellie wrote.
He said that the current Civil Service list has no firefighter candidates and he doesn’t foresee a new candidate list until September or October of this year.