ANN ARBOR, MI—The City of Ann Arbor and the firefighter union agreed Monday night to new collective bargaining terms for the first time in 25 years.
City Council voted 8-1 to approve the contract March 2 at Larcom City Hall, 301 E. Huron St. Council also voted unanimously to approve a new contract with the police department deputy chiefs.
The firefighters’ contract is good for five years until Dec. 31, 2024, said Chris Buscemi, president of the International Association of Firefighters Local 693 Union. The union has extended previous contracts with the city for the last 25 years, but this is the first new one with new financial benefits, he said.
Buscemi called negotiations with the city “fair and productive.”
“Having a five-year contract will not only provide stability within the fire department, but it will also allow our focus to be placed elsewhere,” Buscemi said in a news release. “We have always seemed to be playing catch up.”
Additional contract terms included a lump sum payments of 1% of total earnings in 2020, as well as 2% in 2022, a 1.5% base wage increase starting in 2022 and a contribution of $4,000 a year to union members’ retirement health reimbursement fund.
The contract also promises an increase in firefighter pension contribution from the city from 6% to 6.5% of pay for all union members.
The only dissenting vote came from Councilmember Jane Lumm, I-2nd Ward, who argued for a “hybrid” pension plan.
Employers directly contribute in hybrid plans and invest less, so employer budgets are more predictable due to less reliance on market fluctuations, according to the IRS. However, investment benefits for employees end up becoming less predictable due to those same market fluctuations, the IRS said.
A hybrid plan would save money for the city in the long term, Lumm said, but the firefighters denied the proposal.
“Many employers, private and public, are switching to hybrid plans to address legacy cost obligations,” Lumm said. “It would ultimately reduce volatility and pension costs for the city and provide protections for taxpayers.”
Mayor Christopher Taylor thanked the firefighters’ union for its service and its “collective willingness” to work on the contract negotiations.
While the vote was unanimous on the new two-year deputy police chief contracts, Councilmember Jack Eaton, D-4th Ward, disagreed with one perk: Deputy chiefs getting their own work cars. This isn’t in line with the city’s carbon reduction goals, he argued.
“We can’t prohibit our employees from living outside the city,” Eaton said. “When a deputy chief lives a long distance from town, providing a city vehicle seems contrary to our climate goals...I think when we’re negotiating contracts, we should express our values.”
The pay terms in the two-year agreement include a 2.75% wage increase each year.
The work vehicle is not a “perk,” Taylor said, but a “job benefit" that provides deputy chiefs with a vehicle equipped for police services.
“We ask our deputy chiefs to come in at various times of the day to support on-site, in-progress actions,” Taylor said. “When we call in a deputy chief...we don’t want to have them coming to City Hall for 10-15 minutes to get a car and go (somewhere).”
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