By Olivia Mitchell
cleveland.com
CLEVELAND, Ohio - Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb said Tuesday that he’s agreed to give city firefighters a 12% raise, followed by 3% annual raises for the next three years.
The contract, which will be retroactive starting April 1, 2025, must be approved by City Council. The agreement came after an expedited period of negotiations between the city and the firefighters’ union.
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“This administration was not going to pay or spare any expense to make sure we’re investing in public safety,” said Bibb, the son of a longtime Cleveland Heights firefighter.
“And we know that the men and women of our fire department put their lives on the line every single day to serve our residents,” Bibb added.
Joseph Konys, the president of the International Association of Firefighters Local 93 union, said it was one of the quickest contract negotiations he’s seen in his career.
“The big takeaway from this new agreement is that we’ve built a stronger partnership that’s going to allow us to continue to work proactively together to improve, not only the safety for our men and women out there on the front lines, but for the communities that they’re serving,” Konys said.
The new firefighter contract follows a similar raise with the police union. The city agreed in March to a 34% raise over three years for rank-and-file officers.
Bibb said the agreements are part of the city’s attempt to attract and retain public safety personnel.
“When I took office in 2022, in terms of public safety, both for police and fire, we were dealing with a lot of challenges in terms of attraction and retention,” Bibb explained.
Cleveland Fire Chief Anthony Luke said the new contract will help with critical staffing challenges that have emerged over the past two decades.
Luke said 25 years ago, if the fire department announced a test for firefighters, there would be over 3,000 applicants. Today, the department is lucky to get 1,000 applicants, he said.
He said the department has 738 firefighters, down about 19 from its maximum staffing level.
“This contract is a significant and well-deserved step forward,” Luke said.
If council approves the contract, the starting salary for a firefighter will be $77,739, up from about $68,400. That will increase each year under the three-year contract.
Cleveland City Councilman Mike Polensek , who chairs the public safety committee, supports the agreement.
“We took major steps working with the administration to improve pay so we could attract more, so we could be competitive not just within Cuyahoga County , but throughout the state,” he said.
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