City awards firefighters 3.25 percent pay hike

The Kenney administration granted 3.25 percent raises to the 2,100 members of the Fire Department, effective July 1.

The raises were part of a reopening of the firefighters' four-year contract, which expires next year. When the contract, which was retroactive to 2013, was signed in January 2015, it awarded raises for the first three years and left the fourth year open for negotiation.

The agreement called for annual raises of 3, 3, and 3.25 percent, with a reopener in 2016.

City spokeswoman Lauren Hitt said an arbiter decided on the 3.25 percent wage increase for 2017.

The initial contract had a value of $70 million. The reopener, which was settled June 23, added $6.9 million for fiscal year 2017.

In addition to the raises, the city also agreed to pay a $2.65 million lump sum into the firefighters' health trust fund.

Andrew Thomas, president of the Philadelphia firefighters' and paramedics' union, IAFF Local 22, did not return phone calls seeking comment Tuesday.

The administration had set aside $10 million for new labor obligations in fiscal year 2017 and incremental amounts through 2021 totaling $200 million as part of its five-year plan.

On Friday, it signed a $170 million, four-year deal with the city's blue-collar union, AFSCME District Council 33. The city next year must negotiate new contracts with its white-collar union, AFSCME District Council 47, and the Fraternal Order of Police, as well as the firefighters.

Given the D.C. 33 deal and reopening of the firefighters contracts, the city will have to resubmit its five-year plan to the Pennsylvania Intergovernmental Cooperation Authority (PICA) for approval. Under the 1991 state law that created PICA, state funding to the city is dependent on PICA's approval of its plan.