Concord Fire Officers Frustrated With Lack Of New Union Contract With Higher Pay

CONCORD, NH — Frustration has boiled over in recent months between Concord’s fire officers and city officials due to the lack of a union contract while other employee units are receiving retention payments worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Jim Duckworth, the president of the Concord Fire Officials Association, IAFF Local 3195, said the org had been working without a contract since July 2024. Members started expressing their frustration during recent Concord City Council meetings. The union represents fire commanders in the department.

Duckworth did not question the need for retention bonuses for other employees, likening it to City Manager Tom Aspell “throwing bonuses to preserve people” employed with the city. But at the same time, fire commanders on the front lines are working at the old pay scale. The city council has approved several retention bonuses for police and other employees.

Duckworth said the Concord Fire Department was losing employees “like we have never lost before” during the past year. He pointed to Laconia, a smaller city with fewer calls but a higher starting pay grade and signup bonuses than Concord. Dover, he added, another smaller city, also has fewer calls than Concord, but the fire officers there make more money.

“For years, the fire officers have taken what (the city) has offered,” Duckworth said. “This is the first time in a long time we’ve been out of a contract.”

But it goes beyond the contract. Duckworth believes the fire officers deserve “some sort of retention bonus, built into the contract, with some sort of parity.”

The city, however, is not even willing to entertain it, he said.

Duckworth said the city is preparing a wage study to examine compensation across departments. The study is scheduled to take years, he said.

“More or less,” he said, “they offered us the same offer they made to all the other unions in the city. Our argument is we are behind. We hear, ‘Wait for the wage study,’ repeatedly, but that is at least two years. At the end of the day, it becomes difficult to watch them giving these bonuses to all these other workers but not willing to entertain doing it for us.”

Aspell refused to comment about the contract and standoff with fire officers. He confirmed the city hired consulting services with Paypoint HR for a “classification and compensation study” to have each position in the organization reviewed in its entirety. Aspell said the study was underway and it would take time to complete.

Duckworth said firefighters in Concord now take advanced EMT, which has “increased the bar.” The organization has four captains, four battalions, 12 lieutenants, one paramedic lieutenant, and two captains and administrators, he said.

The city was also behind on proper staffing levels for the population and the number of calls. He said staffing levels are similar to four decades ago, but the calls have tripled. Duckworth said the department needed more firefighters and better pay, which would keep them in the city. He said firefighters also worked a lot of overtime due to vacancies and injuries. One back injury, he said, can cost the city up to a $1 million. The lack of staffing, too, often makes it “nearly impossible” to continue training.

Due to the change in their structure, other cities are seeing more applicants for new firefighters. While Concord may get a few applications, the other cities get 100 applications. Some new hires stay for a short stint—one or two years—and then leave for other communities or the job entirely.

“It’s tough,” Duckworth said. “It’s a tough game we are playing. (It appears) we aren’t as relevant as we used to be as an employer. And we are crushing our people with the call volume. it’s soul-crushing.”

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