City Approves Tentative Agreement with Royal Oak Firefighters

The City Commission approved a tentative agreement with the Royal Oak Firefighters Association at its meeting Monday night.

“The negotiations have been long. They’ve been tough. But I also think they have been very professional,” City Attorney David Gillam said of the 14 months of talks.

The proposed two-year tentative agreement with the Professional Firefighters Local 431 reflects a savings to the city of more than 15 percent of payroll costs, according to Gillam.

Members have agreed to accept:

• an immediate 2.5 percent reduction in pay
• a wage freeze in the second year
• moving all members to one health care plan with higher deductibles and more out of pocket costs
• 20 percent contribution to health care premiums for all members 
• a $10/$40/$80 drug rider
• mirroring of prescription drug coverage at retirement with prescription drug coverage for active employees
• increasing their contribution to the pension system to 6 percent  

Employee pension contributions were previously increased from 2% to 5% in the previous contract, according to a press release.

In addition, the tentative agreement would reflect some operational issues.

“All in all, it’s not the answer to all of our problems, but it’s definitely a step in the right direction,” Gillam said.

Mayor Jim Ellison called the agreement monumental and a game changer. “Fire stepped up to the plate,” Ellison said, thanking Joel Smith, the president of the union. The mayor said Smith worked for the benefit of firefighters with an eye for the community as a whole.

“The city of Royal Oak deserves to have good public safety. It deserves to have a good fire department. The members of the fire union understood that with our current financial situation that was in peril,” Ellison said.

Smith acknowledged the burden of the cuts on his membership.

“It’s pretty brutal on us,” Smith told the Daily Tribune. “The health care will run us about $260 a month for a family. Overall, we’re looking at about $7,000 less a year. It will be difficult on everyone.”

The only “no” vote was cast by Mayor Pro Tem Patricia Capello, who said she struggled with the agreement. “All of our other bargaining units have given concessions that equated to 20 percent of their base salaries and the firefighters, as we’ve just heard, have given us concessions that equate to 15 percent of their base salaries.”

Capello said other bargaining units are not as highly compensated as firefighters and yet “they truly gave everything they could.”

“I’m concerned that the firefighters could not dig as deep as some of the other unions and share the pain equally,” she said.

The city still has three police bargaining units to settle with.

With Royal Oak facing a projected $3.4 million shortfall for the fiscal year starting July 1, some officials have said they might be willing to ask voters for a millage to balance the $32 million budget. But they won't do that until all union contracts are settled.