Sturgeon Bay officials will take firefighter contract talks to mediation after negotiations stalled over pay parity and health protections, leaving the city’s fire union working under an expired contract, while members press for city-funded cancer screenings.
After meeting in closed session for nearly 90 minutes on Jan. 20, the Common Council decided to go to mediation to reach an agreement on a new three-year contract, said Mayor David Ward.
Sturgeon Bay’s firefighters’ union will continue to work under the terms of the previous contract that expired Dec. 31. When asked what issues would need to be resolved to finalize a new contract, Ward said “all the issues would be on the table,” adding, “that’s what a negotiation is.”
Ward said the mediator would be selected by the State of Wisconsin, while the council would work with its attorney to schedule the mediation.
Union members in the Sturgeon Bay Fire Department were on hand for the council’s meeting and urged approval of provisions favored by the firefighters, rather than having to go to arbitration.
The city’s Professional Police Officers Union has a new three-year contract in effect this year through 2028, which received final approval by the council last August.
“We’re just trying to get a deal done to match parity with the cops,” said firefighter Austin Gulley, one of 12 union members in the fire department. “We also want to look out for our members via the cancer screenings. We’ve had an alarming rate of cancer lately on a small department, so we want to kind of address that now [rather] than later.”
Among the city firefighters, they note that former Fire Chief Tim Herlache dealt with cancer and passed away last year at age 66.
Firefighter union members, who have expressed concerns about being at higher risk of having cancer because of their firefighting duties, want the city to pay the cost of annual cancer screenings, which they estimate would total close to $5,000 per year for all the members combined.
Firefighter Richard Soukup said a “handshake agreement” to include the cancer screenings in a new contract fell through, and he asked the council during the public comment period before the closed session to “please help us by finding money to keep us alive.”
“Our health insurance does not cover the cost of these cancer screenings,” he said. “There are companies that specialize in these cancer screenings, specifically for firefighters, because firefighters face significantly higher cancer risks due to the job that we do. These screenings are proven to detect cancer earlier when it’s the most treatable. and survivable.”
Soukup said screening for cancer is personal for him because his cousin, John Soukup, who was a Sturgeon Bay firefighter for 14 years, had a cancer-related death at age 42.
https://doorcountypulse.com/firefighters-push-for-cancer-screenings-as-city-talks-head-to-mediation/
