MANSFIELD — The International Association of Firefighters Local 266 has a new three-year contract with the City of Mansfield.
The 80-member union also apparently has a “letter of acknowledgement” from the city administration — separate from the new contract — that its members will each receive $6,000 one-time bonuses similar to those received by Mansfield police officers in 2022.
“We were told that’s a legal document,” IAFF Local 266 President Matt Shafley said after the meeting. “There are some stipulations on there when it has to be done. There is a timeframe.”
Council, without any public discussion, voted 7-0 to approve the new contract after a 19-minute executive session. Shafley said union members voted last week in favor of the new deal, 56-11.
Council would have to vote on the bonus payments at a future meeting.
Details of the contract itself were not made public Tuesday evening. Mayor Tim Theaker said copies of the contract should be available on Wednesday morning.
The new deal, retroactive to April 1, 2022, comes after a fact-finder’s report that recommended the city not pay “retention incentives” paid to police officers as part of the new contract with the Fraternal Order of Police.
The city used $600,000 in American Rescue Plan Act funds to award police officer bonuses in March in an attempt to stave off manpower losses in an already short-staffed department.
It’s not known if the city will use ARPA money to pay the firefighter bonuses.
Lyndhurst attorney Donald Jaffee, appointed by the State Employment Relations Board to provided fact-finding services, noted in his Dec. 15 report that the fire department has not experienced the same staffing shortage as seen by the city’s police division.
The union voted unanimously to reject the fact-finder’s report, though council voted to accept it. That rejection by the union had set the stage for binding conciliation if the two sides had not reached an agreement.
Negotiations on the new deal began 13 months ago, according to Shafley, a lieutenant in the department who thanked his bargaining team members for their efforts.
“It’s rare that it goes a full year. I want to say thanks to my negotiating team. They have worked really hard. A lot of hard work goes into this. A lot of time away from families,” Shafley said.
He declined to characterize the agreement.
“I’ll just say the contract is the contract and how the whole negotiation process goes. The city comes in with stuff, we come in with stuff, what you end up with is what we got,” he said.
If the case had gone to conciliation, the city and the union would have made final offers and the hearing officer would have chosen one or the other with no middle ground or compromise.
“In all the negotiations that I’ve been a part of, I’ve been to binding arbitration one time and that was during the (city’s) fiscal emergency. Normally you try to get a contract before going to conciliation,” he said.
FOP members received $6,500 retention bonuses and a 7.75 percent pay increase as part of their new contract last year. It does not appear firefighters received the same pay increase.
“Sometimes you’re not gonna be happy, sometimes you’re gonna be happy,” Shafley said.
“However, in this particular contract, I think the biggest disappointment is from the guys and gals downtown who have been working really hard through COVID, coming into work hard day in and day out, nobody complains and they just do their job well.
“We didn’t get the same consideration, so to speak, that the cops got in terms of raises. So we were a little disappointed by that,” he said.
Regardless, Shafley said firefighters appreciate the public’s support.
“We’re gonna continue to do a very good job. I can promise you that.”
