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A summary of information surrounding the new CFD contract
A blog post from *Politics Early & Often*, part of *Suntimes.com*, highlights how Chicago is managing to pay back wages for firefighters without increasing its debt. The article discusses a new five-year contract that avoids union concessions in exchange for the potential of pension reform.
Under this agreement, Chicago firefighters and paramedics will receive over $20 million in back pay without the city needing to borrow money. This comes after Mayor Rahm Emanuel successfully lobbied the City Council to double the “commercial paper†program, raising it from $500 million to $1 billion. This short-term borrowing tool helps cover unexpected expenses like retroactive pay or legal judgments.
However, the city claims that the $20 million for back pay is already accounted for in the 2014 budget through general finance funds, so no additional debt was incurred. The contract also includes an 11% pay raise over five years, maintains staffing levels, and upgrades all 15 basic-life-support ambulances to advanced-life-support units. This change is expected to improve emergency care and free up about 30 firefighters, as each BLS ambulance is staffed by two firefighter-EMTs.
The city plans to hire between 50 and 200 additional paramedics, and a six-member committee—made up of three mayoral appointees and three union representatives—will assess the need for more ambulances. The goal is to add five more units by 2016, bringing the total to 80.
Firefighters and paramedics who retire between 55 and 59 will now contribute 2% toward their health care, a small concession compared to other union demands. However, the mayor didn’t succeed in cutting other benefits like holiday pay, clothing allowances, or premium pay for cross-trained personnel.
The deal is seen as a “vanilla†agreement aimed at fostering collaboration ahead of broader pension reforms. With state law requiring a $600 million pension contribution next year, Emanuel is pushing for a delay until 2023 to avoid financial strain on taxpayers.
Sources say going after more controversial issues could have led to arbitration, which would have forced the city to make further trade-offs. For now, the focus is on building trust with unions to tackle the long-term pension crisis.
Thanks, Dan.