Excerpts from the ChicagoSuntmes.com:
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson says firefighters and paramedics have waited four years for a new contract and the pay raise that comes with it because he’s trying to reshape the Chicago Fire Department to handle emergency medical assistance demands that comprise two-thirds of all calls for service.
With a $1.12 billion shortfall and $3 billion more in federal funds on the chopping block, the mayor is determined to confront a cost-cutting challenge his predecessors avoided.
“Not just in Chicago, but around the country, there’s a … greater need for ambulatory care than there is for traditional fire trucks,” he said.
Johnson wouldn’t say whether he is attempting to close fire stations or eliminate the minimum staffing requirement that mandates five employees on every piece of fire apparatus, with the exception of daily “variances.” He would only say the “infrastructure within our city has been around for so long, it’s not as nimble and flexible as it needs to be.
“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.
Chicago firefighters and paramedics haven’t had a pay raise in four years. They’re still working under terms of a contract that expired on June 30, 2023. That contract includes 35 daily “variances” or exceptions that allow the city to operate with four employees on an engine or truck instead of five.
Firefighters Union President Pat Cleary said the Johnson administration wants to double the number of daily variances to at least 70. The union wants five fewer variances.
In 2013 and 2015, investigations by Chicago’s inspector general showed CFD response times did not meet state and federal standards. More recent audits showed that CFD data collection is so inadequate that it’s difficult to accurately measure response times. The department has failed to fill those gaps.
Cleary has said he won’t settle for less than 20 more ambulances — in addition to the 80 currently on the street — and the paramedics to staff them. Local 2 is also demanding a cycle of annual equipment purchases, including at least 10 engines, seven trucks and six to eight ambulances.
Johnson was asked whether the city can afford to purchase, staff and equip 20 additional ambulances at a cost of roughly $10 million for the vehicles alone. He would only say that there is “a reason why…there are still some challenges” in negotiating a new firefighters contract when the police contract was rather easily extended and sweetened 19 months ago.
Former mayors talked about eliminating the minimum staffing requirement and reconciling the number of firehouses with the fact that CFD now spends two-thirds of its time responding to medical emergencies. Neither ultimately made those cuts.
On May 21, a process known as “interest arbitration” will begin. A mediator will bring the two sides together and attempt to find middle ground on unresolved issues. It that doesn’t work, binding arbitration is next. Both sides would submit their best and last offers, and the mediator would then decide between the two proposals.
thanks Dan
