Under pressure from a mediator and without major concessions, Mayor Brandon Johnson has reached a tentative agreement with Chicago Fire Fighters Union Local 2 to break the stalemate that has forced 4,800 firefighters and paramedics to wait four years for a new contract — and the pay raise that comes with it.
Johnson declared an end to the marathon stalemate without revealing any specifics.
Pat Cleary, president of Chicago Fire Fighters Union Local 2, described the six-year contract as “status-quo” with no major concessions on either side.
Pay raises included in the six-year agreement — up to 20% depending on the rate of inflation — are identical to those awarded to Chicago police officers in the contract that Johnson extended and sweetened.
Local 2 was demanding 20 more ambulances, along with paramedics to staff them. Johnson wanted to reshape the Chicago Fire Department to handle emergency medical assistance demands that make up two-thirds of all calls for service.
But there will be no increase in the 80 ambulances on the streets of Chicago, and no change to the minimum staffing requirement that mandates five employees on every piece of fire apparatus.
Nor does the tentative agreement increase the 35 daily “variances” that allow the city to operate with just four employees on an engine or truck.
“We have worked hard to get this deal done. There are still some steps that have to be taken in order for this to be finalized,” the mayor said, referring to ratification votes by rank-and-file firefighters and the City Council. “Since taking office, we’ve landed dozens and dozens of contracts. This one was important to me, and I’m glad that we are moving forward.”
Johnson refused to put a price tag on the cost of retroactive pay for firefighters and paramedics. He would only say that his administration budgeted for back pay and that “there are some other elements within the tentative agreement that, I believe, places us in a stronger position to build a safe and affordable big city.”
Cleary was nearly as tight-lipped, saying he didn’t want to “sabotage” an agreement that has not yet been “signed and inked.”
“My membership has not approved it, and the City Council has not approved. So until those steps are done, this is not done. We’re still in the process. Nothing’s completed yet,” Cleary told the Chicago Sun-Times. “I don’t want to ruin what’s going on. I don’t want to sabotage it. I want it to be signed. Then I’ll be happy.”
Without the mediator, Cleary said the stalemate would have continued, culminating in binding arbitration that would have been risky for both sides.
At one point during the negotiations, Local 2 forged an unlikely alliance with the Chicago Teachers Union, where Johnson served as a paid organizer before becoming mayor. Millions of dollars in campaign contributions and thousands of foot soldiers provided by the CTU helped Johnson rise from single-digit obscurity to the fifth floor of City Hall.
Cleary credited the CTU with an assist on the new deal.
“You could show what they got and try to use it as a comparable. Plus, it was just union support. Why would I not accept union support?” he said. “Same thing with the [Fraternal Order of Police]. The FOP has been on our side the entire time.”
Local 2 was also demanding a “cycle” of annual equipment purchases, including at least 10 engines, seven trucks and six to eight ambulances.
But cash-strapped City Hall could ill afford to purchase, staff and equip 20 more ambulances at a cost of roughly $10 million for the vehicles alone.
Instead, Cleary sought and won passage of a new state law that requires the city to use 10% of annual ambulance fee revenue to maintain and purchase fire rigs.
“That’s like $300 million in revenue. So, that’ll be $30 million,” Cleary said.
During a midterm interview with the Sun-Times, Johnson was outspoken about the need to find an “innovative approach” to accommodate “a greater need for ambulatory care than there is for traditional fire trucks.”
“One of the challenges that we’re having with all of our contracts is that the type of systems that we need moving forward — they just don’t exist,” he said then.