City Approves Contract with Firefighters

The city has approved a contract with firefighters, 18 months after the last one expired.

The by a dispute between the two sides over "professional pay" -- a technical issue over the calculation of paramedics' earnings.

Firefighters' previous contract expired in December 2009. The firefighters union voted to accept a new agreement hammered out by a factfinder last fall, but the city challenged the wage scale numbers.

Human Resources Director Steve Kilo said the issue went to arbitration in May, and the resolution was "a compromise." 

"I think everyone was happy to get this behind us," Kilo said.

The three-year deal calls for firefighters to receive pay raises of 1.5 percent in 2010, 2.5 percent in 2011 and 3 percent in 2012.

The raises will be retroactive to the beginning of 2010.

Strongsville firemedic Tony Hunt, the department's union spokesman, was not available for comment Wednesday.

He has said in the past that the wage scale in the contract was the same one in use for the last several years, but the city was now interpreting the scale differently.