Cape city officials ink first collective bargaining agreement with local firefighters union

Cape Girardeau city officials have signed the city’s first collective-bargaining agreement with the local firefighters union.

City manager Scott Meyer, fire chief Rick Ennis and human-resources director Lori Meyer signed the agreement Friday, along with four officers of the Cape Girardeau Firefighters Association. The local firefighters group constitutes Local 1084 of the International Association of Firefighters.

The international association represents more than 300,000 full-time firefighters and paramedics in more than 3,100 affiliates in every state and Canada, according to the group’s website.

The agreement between the city and Cape Girardeau firefighters runs though June 30, 2022.

Meyer said the contract did not require city council approval.

Under Cape Girardeau’s city charter, management of city employees is the responsibility of the city manager, he said.

But Meyer said he kept the city council informed of the negotiations and the ultimate agreement.

“I kept them in the loop,” Meyer said Monday.

Mayor Harry Rediger said Meyer discussed the issue with council members several times in closed-door sessions. Under state law, the council is allowed to hold closed sessions about personnel matters and legal actions, among other things.

While public employees can operate under bargaining agreements, Missouri law prohibits them from striking.

Meyer and Ennis said the agreement was prompted by a Missouri Supreme Court decision that has put an end to the old system of “meet and confer.”

Under that system, local governments met with representatives of employee groups but did not have to negotiate labor agreements.

City attorney Eric Cunningham said the May 29, 2007, decision came in a ruling in a lawsuit brought by the Independence, Missouri, chapter of the National Education Association against the Independence School District.

The court ruled public employees have a constitutional right to bargain collectively with their employers.

The 28-page contract for Cape Girardeau firefighters took nearly four years to iron out, city officials and firefighters said.

Fire department Capt. Norman Baker, president of the local firefighters association, said the agreement benefits firefighters because it locks in “working conditions and benefits.”

It also provides a blueprint for city management in addressing personnel matters involving the city’s firefighters, he said.

The agreement covers 55 firefighters from the rank of captain on down, Baker said, adding all of those firefighters pay union dues. The department’s top seven officers, including the fire chief, and its two secretaries are not covered by the pact.

Baker, one of the four union leaders who signed the agreement, said it covers everything from benefits to overtime pay. It also covers layoffs. It protects those who have the most seniority, stipulating the least senior in service be laid off first.

Laid-off employees will maintain seniority and recall rights for three years, according to the agreement.

Under the agreement, salaries will continue to be determined annually. Baker said the city and the union will engage in salary negotiations each year.

Firefighters received a general 2 percent wage increase in July as part of the 2016-2017 operating budget approved by the city council. That pay raise has been incorporated into the agreement.

Baker said firefighters preferred a “funded pay plan” that would have spelled out salary levels for the term of the collective-bargaining agreement. But Baker said the city administration wanted to keep the current system of deciding salaries on an annual basis.

Meyer said salaries for firefighters will continue to be determined “in the context of the budget.”

The agreement stipulates firefighters will be paid time and a half for overtime hours, which are defined as “beyond their normal 56- or 40-hour duty schedule.”

According to the agreement, the city will strive to maintain three platoons, with 19 firefighters per platoon.

The two sides agreed daily staffing could fall below that level on account of illness, emergency leave and other factors. But the agreement states: “These situations should be rare, not routine, occasions.”

The minimum-staffing goal could be revisited if a significant financial downturn occurs, which is defined as a reduction in reoccurring revenue by 4 percent to 5 percent in a single year or 10 percent in any three consecutive years.

Baker said the firefighters are the only employee group in Cape Girardeau city government that has a bargaining agreement.

Ennis, the fire chief, said he is “fine” with the agreement.

“It gives us an opportunity to improve labor relations,” he said, adding, “We are headed in the right direction.”

It took time to negotiate the agreement because “both sides wanted to make sure it was done right,” he said.

mbliss@semissourian.com

(573) 388-3641

Pertinent address:

401 Independence St., Cape Girardeau, Mo.