Connellsville seals fire department contract
CONNELLSVILLE – Nearly nine months after the expiration of its contract with the city’s fire department union, the mayor and the public health and safety director have signed off on a new agreement. In the three-year pact, the four-man department will receive annual pay increases of 5, 4, and 3 percent, raising the fire chief’s salary in 2005 to $42,036 and $45,029 in 2007; the assistant chief from $39,763 to $42,595; the lieutenant from $38,627 to $41,378 and driver from $33,333 to $35,706 over the length of the contract.
The employees will receive an additional $400 per year for securing an emergency medical technician certification and $500 per year for receiving and maintaining a paramedic certification. The city will also provide full hospitalization, dental, vision and prescription coverage for the workers and dependents and a $15,000 life insurance policy for each firefighter. A $4 co-payment is required for prescriptions, according to the contract.
“Obviously, we’re satisfied or we wouldn’t have signed it,” said Lt. Bill Mickey, president of International Association of Fire Fighters Local 1917, on Monday. “(The city) generally agreed to the basic things we wanted.”
Council gave a verbal agreement to a contract with the department in December that stated the city would allow the three most senior members to retire with full health care benefits when the veteran firefighters exited their positions. The benefit, explained city officials, would exist until each member reached age 65 and obtained Medicare benefits.
The deal would include the withdrawal of a longstanding contract clause that called for the city to maintain a four-person department.
Fire Chief Joe Childs has 38 years with the department, deputy Chief Dennis Petrowski has 36 1/2 years and Mickey has 32 years. Craig Gates is the fourth member of the department. The firefighters are eligible for retirement after 20 years of service.
Several months later, however, it was learned the city was unable to fulfill the request for the retirement insurance package.
Mickey said the union members consented to the revision regarding the insurance in April and replacement of the no-layoff clause, but was unable to offer an explanation as to why it took several additional months for the contract to be inked by the city.
Councilman Charles Matthews, who oversees the department, could not be reached Monday for comment.
Other benefits of the new contract include an increase in the amount paid for unused sick days from 55-percent in 2005 to 60-percent in 2006 and 65-percent in 2007. The firefighters are allotted 15 sick days per year. The contract stipulates that more than 60 days are to be accumulated before the city would purchase unused sick days.
The new contract also gives the department an additional week of vacation for those with more than 25 years of service bringing the maximum amount to five weeks; increases the uniform allowance by $50 each year of the contract and added grandchildren to the immediate family in the bereavement leave clause. In prior contracts, employees were given only one day of leave for the death of a grandchild.
The firefighters will also be paid for 10 holidays during the year and four personal days.
The new pact is retroactive to the beginning of 2005, said Mickey.