On Wednesday afternoon, members of the Professional Firefighters of Marion County voted to approve an agreed upon wage adjustment to an existing contract with Marion County Fire Rescue.
Due to employee shortages and a highly competitive job market, the Professional Firefighters of Marion County (PFFMC) and Marion County Fire Rescue (MCFR) both agreed to open the contract wage article in response to the 2020 constitutional amendment that raised MCFR’s lowest paid positions by one dollar to $15 on October 1, 2022.
Negotiations between PFFMC and MCFR kicked off in September of 2022 and made little progress for multiple months. During that time, Marion County’s negotiation team rejected every offer to correct the rapid compression of wages brought by PFFMC.
After eight months of negotiations, an offer was presented to PFFMC on May 23, 2023, which was agreed upon by the county and union negotiation team.
Earlier this week, over a three-day period, a vote was held by members of the PFFMC at their hall to approve or reject the offer. Over 90% of members approved the offer, and it now heads to the Marion County Board of County Commissioners for approval during the meeting that will take place on Tuesday, June 20.
According to PFFMC, the following factors helped both parties reach an agreement:
- MCFR had the highest number of vacancies in the state, and there are currently around 30 vacancies a day that still need to be filled.
- There were over 39,000 hours of overtime at MCFR by the end of April 2023. An additional 14,000 hours were mandatory overtime when members were told that they could not go home.
- The proposed contract replaces biannual raises with yearly raises and rewards consistent continuing education.
- A loyalty bonus was initiated to retain Marion County’s valuable and experienced first responders.
In a social media post, PFFMC stated, “It’s our hope this contract will bring retention and recruitment to an all time high for MCFR and hopefully reward loyalty to the first responders who have sacrificed for many years to serve Marion County.”
For more information, visit the Professional Firefighters of Marion County’s Facebook page.