BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. – After more than a year of gridlock, Brevard County and its firefighters finally agreed to a new contract.
$15/hour was a jarring number to many when they found out that’s how little some firefighters were making.
Low pay contributed to more than 100 leaving Brevard County Fire Rescue.
The president of the union for firefighters said there are still retention challenges with 80 current vacancies.
“It’s bittersweet in many aspects being that, wages is just a mechanism to get what we need,” Mike Bramson said. “The ultimate goal, here, of course, is to be able to provide the services needed by Brevard County citizens, taxpayers, visitors.”
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The county is proposing raises between 16% and 22% for EMTs and paramedics.
“The landscape of the raises is satisfactory in the aspect of we were able to put together something that put most of the wages that we were looking for towards more senior people,” Bramson said.
While the raises proposed are nice, Bramson said the new contract does not address work-life balance.
Brevard County Community Correspondent James Sparvero also asked to interview the county about finally making a deal.
It replied with the following statement:
“This was months in the making.. and we’ve got work to do to make it feasible. In the meantime, we will wait for direction next week from our board of county commissioners and then, as warranted, work to retro pay the firefighters and move forward,’” Communications Director Don Walker wrote.
Claudia Conner from Viera said she’s all in favor of commissioners to approve the contract.
“I think they deserve to be paid well for the work they do,” she said. “It’s very dangerous. Takes a special person to do that.”
The commission’s discussion is scheduled next Tuesday, July 22.
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