Write a commentOn Monday, December 10, 2018, Mayor William J. Barlow, Jr. will present a proposed deal with Firefighters to the City Council.
The agreement ends a nearly two-year impasse between the City and Firefighters, after the 2016 cuts to the department to meet City financial obligations.
Mayor Barlow emphasized that this agreement is an unconventional one, in so far as it was reached without using legal counsel and the Courts to go back and forth. “When other communities are forced to resolve disagreements in court and talking through their attorneys, we have been able to resolve our differences by working together”, said Mayor Barlow. The agreement takes Firefighters through 2022 and wraps up the last open City bargaining unit contract to be settled.
Oswego Firefighters Local 126 President John Geraci said, “We are pleased with the agreement and the process resolving our differences leaves me more optimistic for how we move the department into the future.”
In finalizing the contract Fire Chief Randy Griffin said, “You can accomplish extraordinary things when you talk to people and not through people”. Griffin continued, “This closes a chapter and I look forward to continuing to move the department ahead”.
The City Council meets in the Council Chamber of City Hall at 7:30PM. The public is welcome.
