ANAHEIM : Firefighters Win Raise, King Holiday

After five months of negotiations, the City Council has approved a 2 1/2-year contract that will give city firefighters a moderate pay raise and an extra holiday.

The firefighters will receive an 18% pay raise over the next 2 1/2 years, starting with a 3% increase this month and another 5% retroactive to July, 1990. Then they will see two 3% increases, one in July, 1991, and the other in January, 1992. A final 4% raise will be given in July, 1992.

The initial raise this month will increase the entry level annual salary for firefighters from $26,325 and $38,904 to between $27,111 and $40,069. The pay for fire engineers will increase this month from $43,767 to $45,078 annually, and captains’ wages will go from $50,581 to $52,096.

The contract was slightly different from one the 208-member union had rejected earlier this year, said Dennis Ivison, director of the union’s political action committee. But there were enough changes in the city’s proposal to bring nearly unanimous acceptance from the firefighters, who approved the contract Friday, he said.

In addition, Martin Luther King Day will be a regularly observed holiday for firefighters, and other issues concerning overtime and insurance benefits were also adjusted.