Firefighters' Contract Approved

The City Council unanimously approved the new 3-year contract with the city firefighters’ union, Local 732, at a public work session on Thursday night at City Hall.

The new contract is slated to save the city $3.9 million over the next 3 years, according to a financial impact statement provided by the city. The largest savings is estimated to come from increased co-pays on medical insurance ($905,000), a move to 24-hour shifts ($450,000) and the elimination of compensatory time ($915,000.)

Also included was the language guaranteeing that no firefighters would be laid off during the term of the contract, a raise of 1.5% in the second year of the contract and 2.5% in the third.

“I’m satisfied,” said Mayor Leo Fontaine, “I needed to come up with the best proposal that I could to give to the Council. Are there areas that I wish we could have done better? Yes. But I think we made significant strides in certain areas: healthcare, elimination of comp time, consolidating dispatch. These are significant things.”

“As far as the salary increases,” added Fontaine, “it’s 1.5 to 2.5 percent, but they offset that with cash give backs in OPEB.”

OPEB is other post employment benefits. Under the new contract firefighters will be required to contribute 0.5 percent of salary in the first year, of the contract, then 1.0 percent in the second year and 1.5 percent in the third year. OPEBs largely fund retirement health care.

The contract states that the city can change the dispatch system and Fontaine hinted that they may add one extra person per shift at the police station to handle the fire dispatching. By cutting out the six dispatch positions the fire department will drop from 123 full time employees to 117, according to Fontaine.

Christopher Oakland, president of Local 732, said he was happy the contract passed and is looking forward to moving on.

“There’s tough economic times in this city,” said Oakland, “We realize that, we realize the city doesn’t have a large tax flow, and you know what, all we want to do is get this behind us, we want to go to work, we want to do our job, that’s what we’re the best at.”

A few members of the public also came to speak on the contract on Thursday night.

Resident Roland Michaud took issue with the length of the contract. He felt that politicians shouldn’t be able to bargain for a contract that’s longer than their term in office. If new council members or a mayor was elected this year, said Michaud, you’d be disrupting “their ability for them to control the finances through the tenure of their first years in office.”

Jim Cournoyer, a resident and vice president of the Woonsocket Taxpayer Coalition, also had concerns with length of the contract. He said in these tough economic times the city would be “handcuffing itself” with a 3-year contract that provides guaranteed raises.

“The city needs as much flexibility as it can to deal with situations ahead,” said Cournoyer.

During Cournoyer’s testimony, Charles Lemoine, a resident, interrupted to ask the city’s lawyer, Joseph Larisa, to stop blatantly using his cell phone while sitting at the conference table.

“Are we paying you to be here?” asked Lemoine, “Put your phone down.”

“I’ve heard every word he’s said, sir,” replied Larisa, “I’m paying full attention, thank you.”

Lemoine told him he shouldn’t be using his phone during the meeting, but quieted down when City Council President John Ward told him Cournoyer had the floor.

Larisa continued to scan through his phone for approximately five minutes after the confrontation.

When Lemoine took the floor he asked Fontaine if Larisa was being paid by the city and if he should be “playing with his phone while we’re trying to do firemen’s business here.”

“Yes, we are paying him to be here,” said Fontaine who didn’t think it was a problem as long as it “doesn’t impact his service to us.”

As of May 31, by the city for his services this Fiscal Year, some of which came from his work on the court case that browned out Ladder 1.

Under the new contract, Ladder 1 will no longer be browned out, but the minimum manpower requirement will fall from 26 to 24 firefighters on duty at all time.

The contract also changes the shift schedule from two 10-hour shifts, two 14-hour shifts per week, to two 24-hour shifts per week. The change will result in $150,000 in savings from overtime, according to the city’s financial impact statement.

The city was also able to negotiate new longevity pay guidelines. Firefighters hired after the new contract will receive an 11 percent longevity pay bonus after 10 years of service. Previously firefighters got a 10 percent lump sum payment every year after five years of service.

The approval of the contract represents the culmination of what appeared to be 5 months of jockeying between the union and the administration. There was the , the union in Chief Gary Lataille and the proposed , which Fontaine through a superior court case.

But a friendly amendment added to the resolution to pass the contract put an end to that. Local 732 agreed to drop four grievance cases it had with the city regarding the Ladder 1 brown out case and the city agreed to drop its declaratory judgment case on the 56-hour workweek.

Larisa helped with the wording of the amendment.

Before the vote, many of the Council members thanked Chief Gary Lataille for his hard work on the contract. They noted his care in protecting his firefighters’ concerns, but also his respect for the interest of the taxpayers.

“I’ve gained a lot of respect for this gentleman,” said Councilman Daniel Gendron.

The amendment passed 6-0, with Ward noting for the record that Councilwoman Stella Brien, who had to leave early, also supported the contract, thus making the decision unanimous.

Read more about the details of the contract here -