Firefighters’ Labor Pact Wins Approvals
Firefighters providing service to about 1 million Orange County residents voted Thursday to ratify a new 2 1/2-year employment contract, a vote mirrored Thursday night by the Orange County Fire Authority board.
The new contract represents the first time in two years that the authority’s 725 full-time firefighters will have a signed work agreement. Past work contracts--containing no pay raises--were imposed on firefighters by the authority board, which claimed it couldn’t afford to boost salaries.
Union President Joe Kerr said the contract passed by a “good-sized margin.”
It provides for slight pay increases through July 1999, with a promise that firefighters’ salaries will be brought to within the three highest-paid departments in January 2000.
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