A day after the new contract for London police officers was announced, giving them a 4.8 per cent raise over the next four years, the head of London’s firefighter union is calling out city council for not bringing firefighter pay up to the salaries of similar municipalities.
Speaking Friday morning on AM980′s The Craig Needles Show, London Professional Fire Fighters’ Association president John Hassan expressed his desire for action on negotiations with firefighters.
“The biggest question is,’How much has this mayor and this council?’, because they now own the entire process,” Hassan said. “How much have they spent? And how much more are they willing to spend, just to prevent a London firefighter from making the same as people in comparable municipalities?”
The City of London is still in talks with London firefighters, with arbitration on the 2011-2014 contract expected to continue into next spring.
“We’re just really dealing with the reality of 47 days of contract arbitration just to maintain what’s been freely negotiated or awarded in like municipalities,” Hassan said. “A London firefighter is around $5,000 behind (similar municipalities)–and that’s what we believe will be a multimillion dollar arbitration process. It’s just trying to keep us on track with what everybody else has been freely awarded or has negotiated.”
The contract for London police officers gives London Police Service members an average annual raise of 1.2 per cent.
