Las Vegas council approves 3-year contract with firefighters

After a hard-fought negotiation, the city of Las Vegas has a new contract with the union representing fire and rescue workers that will cost the city roughly $11.5 million over three years.

“I have worked on a lot of very thorny collective bargaining agreements,” Las Vegas City Manager Betsy Fretwell told the City Council on Wednesday. “… This one was a very challenging agreement to reach.”

The agreement calls for 2.25 percent cost-of-living wage increases in each of the contract’s three years for eligible employees covered by the International Association of Firefighters Local 1285. This year’s increase is effective retroactively to Sept. 1.

The contract also calls for an increase in the percentage of firefighter and firefighter/paramedic “rover” positions, among other measures aimed at cutting fire and rescue overtime costs.

The union membership already had ratified the new contract, which runs through June 2019. The City Council unanimously approved it Wednesday.

The Clark County Commission in July approved a new four-year firefighters contract, which carries a roughly $7.6 million fiscal impact to the county for the years the contract is in place.

Todd Ingalsbee of the International Association of Firefighters Local 1285 on Wednesday called the new agreement with the city a “mutually agreeable package” that benefits union members and includes measures that will help decrease overtime.

Fretwell said she’s glad the city and the union were able to reach a resolution without litigation. The two sides at one point during the negotiations were at an impasse.

“I think this is a really good three-year agreement,” Fretwell said.

Contact Jamie Munks at jmunks@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0340. Follow @JamieMunksRJ on Twitter.