City embraces new firefighters` contract

Jan. 11--COLD SNAP? What cold snap? The temperature inside City Hall yesterday was decidedly warm and fuzzy as Mayor Nutter and the firefighters' union embraced a new arbitration contract that awards yearly pay increases and allows firefighters the opportunity to live outside of Philadelphia.

The handshake between the Nutter administration and the union that represents the city's roughly 2,200 firefighters and paramedics came in stark contrast to the bitter and contentious go-around of previous labor talks, which sparked a lengthy court battle.

In announcing the four-year contract, Nutter acknowledged "some disagreements and disputes over the last seven years."

"I grant you that this process, quite frankly, has not always been pretty," Nutter said. "In the heat of battle, sometimes things are said, but never, ever, in any way, shape or form, were any of those comments [meant] to be disrespectful to our great hero public servants."

Nutter said the award with Local 22 of the International Association of Fire Fighters in some respects mirrors the current contract with Fraternal Order of Police Lodge No. 5. That contract was agreed upon last summer. For instance, firefighters and paramedics, like cops, will be allowed to move out of the city for the first time. Nutter said he will not appeal the arbitration award, although he had disagreed with that particular provision.

Nutter noted that only "a very, very, very small number" of cops have chosen to move.

Under Local 22's contract, which runs retroactively from July 1, 2013, through June 30, 2017, firefighters and paramedics with five years or more of service will not be required to live in the city, starting Jan. 1, 2016.

The award, which will cost the city an estimated $70 million over five years, gives firefighters 3 percent raises in the first two years of the contract, a 3.25 percent raise in July 2015, and further arbitration of wages in the fourth year. Like the FOP contract, the firefighters' union will implement programs to improve the health of members, with the idea of reducing medical costs down the road.

Nutter and Fire Commissioner Derrick Sawyer credited Local 22 president Joe Schulle for his leadership, taking a not-so-subtle swipe at Schulle's predecessor Bill Gault, who clashed with Nutter.

"You have to have a willingness to negotiate," Sawyer said after the news conference. "You have to have a willingness to compromise so that's what the difference is between this contract and the last contract."

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