After eleven years of negotiations, the Buffalo Firefighters Union and the city still have not agreed on a new contract, reports WGRZ 2.
Friday morning, the Buffalo Fire Department blessed two new trucks to help firefighters keep the city safe while off duty firefighters protested right outside.
The firefighters’ union is upset it has been without a new contract since 2002. And, while Mayor Byron Brown says the city has offered union leaders new contracts over the years, the two sides still have not come to an agreement.
Union members continued their protest outside the Buffalo Irish Center as the mayor arrived for the annual luncheon.
“They have not given me a complete proposal at all,” says union president Dan Cunningham.
“We’ve offered the firefighters union several contracts. The first contract we offered was in 2007. It was a 29-percent increase in pay for firefighters. Later, we voluntarily increased our firefighters’ pay by 5-point-5 percent. Three-thousand dollars to each firefighter,” says Mayor Brown.
But, union leaders say that is not good enough. They say Buffalo firefighters make a base pay of $53,000 a year. They say that is $13,000 less than firefighters in Rochester.
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