Louisville firefighters get contract after 2 years of talks

It is very odd to me that the contract says nothing publicly about increases for two of the years. Is the mayor intending to hide something else. If all city salaries are public then let the numbers out...Don't cover them up. If they are really good numbers, then there is no shame in admitting it. If not, why put it to a vote.

Perhaps, the mayor realizes that all other public safety workers are without contract to, and he needs yet another big secret.

Enough of the secrets...Integrity used to be an admirable quality. Now with this administration its a joke.

Set starting salary for recruits at $11.19 an hour, instead of the $10 an hour the administration wanted. This is unbelievable!!!!!!!!! What a slap in the face. $11.19 an hour. How can you take this contract. Go work at the Mall and make more that $11.19 an hour.

Just to make sure everyone is clear, because of the way their salaries are calculated, it's not really informative to focus on the 11.19 an hour. They work a 56 hour week, which means every week, they get 11.19 an hour for the first 40 hours, and then 16.78 for 16 hours. That makes, according to my calculator, 37, 180 a year for the first year, not including stipend pay. That is not including any overtime, of course.

They also have those 2 days off in between to do other things. (In fact, historically, that's why they have that schedule, to make it more attractive and to compensate for the low pay.)

By my calculation, that's way more than a first year police recruit, right?

The FOP President recently sent out an e-mail with 4 negotiation dates (3 of which are in November) This sure doesn't sound like the City is anxious to get this contract settled. It looks and smells like mor of the same old BS that abramson is famous for peddling.

I am curious as to what the rest of the contract entails. They are keeping this too quiet. The arrogancce of the Abramson administration is unbelievable. All he does is whine and complain about how much he has to pay into the pension fund and all he does is abuse his emergency services workers. 2 years to settle a contract is irresponsible at best on the part of the Abramson administration. EMS, Corrections and the Police are all working without contracts because he'll spend $300,000 for an ad campaign to tell people to come to Louisville to find a girl with a tattoo on her butt, but he won't pay a decent wage to the people that protect the city everyday.