Arbitrator picks Wilmington fire contract opposed by firefighters union

Wilmington firefighters would work 13 additional days per year starting in July under a new contract decided by a state arbitrator that ends a bitter impasse between the city and the fire union.

Firefighters have been without a contract since the last one expired in June 2016. Negotiations last year saw little progress, leading both parties to present their contract proposals before the state's Public Employees Relations Board for arbitration. 

The board's executive director, Deborah Murray-Sheppard, sided with the city's proposal in a binding decision on Wednesday. The contract will last through June 2023.

The International Association of Firefighters Local 1590, which represents Wilmington firefighters, can decide within five days to appeal the decision to Delaware Chancery Court, said President Joe Leonetti.

The main change opposed by the union is a shift change for firefighters from working 24 hours followed by 72 hours off, to working 24 hours followed by 48 hours off. 

The union contended the city will cut the days off that firefighters need to recuperate from long shifts and traumatic emergency scenes.

Mayor Mike Purzycki said in a news release the change "essentially eliminates" the need for rolling bypasses, the controversial practice of shutting down an engine to save on overtime costs.

The change would allow the city to reduce the number of firefighter platoons from four to three, and staff each platoon with more firefighters. Under the current four-platoon schedule, about 35 firefighters are working each shift, just over the 34 required for all engines to be fully staffed.

When shifts open due to illness or vacation time, they must be filled with overtime shifts. When more than five overtime positions are needed, that triggers an engine closure — a practice that's been criticized throughout the city and blamed in a lawsuit for contributing to the deaths of three firefighters in a Canby Park blaze in 2016.

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The union has blamed the city for needing to implement rolling bypasses, pointing to the administration's elimination of 16 firefighter positions in Purzycki's first year in office.

Leonetti said Thursday that firefighters were prepared to agree to the shift change under the condition that the city committed not to shut down engines or lay off any firefighters. When the city refused to put that provision in the contract, the union voted down the city's final offer in February and the parties headed to the state board.

In a news release, Purzycki stopped short of saying rolling bypasses would never be used — only that the new schedule "will end daily staff shortages so the department can operate all of its vehicles, unless, of course, there is an unanticipated staffing shortage."

The new contract gives firefighters a 16% raise to cover the additional hours they will work. Leonetti said firefighters fear that with higher fire salaries to pay, the city will eventually cut costs by shrinking platoon sizes, again raising the risk of shutting down engines.

"We said we would do it if they said no layoffs and no rolling bypass," he said. "We were pretty much calling their bluff."

Purzycki has in the past accused firefighters of advocating for the 24-72 schedule in order to work second jobs.

The new contract also requires firefighters to contribute more to their health care plans, which city officials said in a news release "mirrors the rates paid by the city’s police officers and most other city employees."

They will get standard 2% cost-of-living raises each year, retroactive to last July but not including the years since the contract expired in 2016. Leonetti said the firefighters' proposal was simply to keep their shifts and get a standard cost-of-living raise for each year since the contract expired.

He pointed to the Wilmington police union's recent ratification of a contract extension that gives officers a cost-of-living raise this year. 

"If the police officers can do it without spending hundreds of thousands of dollars in lawyer fees, why aren't the firefighters being treated fairly?" he said.

Attempts last year to negotiate a new contract between the parties saw the city and fire union twice take issues to the state labor board and once to Delaware Chancery Court.

Jeanne Kuang covers Wilmington for The News Journal. Contact her at jkuang@delawareonline.com or (302) 324-2476.