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(New York-WABC, October 27, 2005) The city's largest firefighters union finalized a new contract in their bitter battle with the Bloomberg administration.
Eyewitness News has learned the deal provides raises over the next four years. But firefighters will would have to work an extra hours in exchange for the raises.
Salaries for probationary firefighters would not be touched, unlike the drastic cuts made to the pay of rookie cops in a deal between the police union and City Hall.
The deal marks the latest major contract dispute settled by Mayor Bloomberg as November's election draws closer. The city's 8,900 rank-and-file firefighters have been working without a contract since July 2002 and UFA President Stephen Cassidy has blamed Bloomberg repeatedly for the impasse.
The showdown got especially heated in May when FDNY Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta accused union leaders of deliberately slowing the response times to emergencies as part of a scheme to reopen firehouses and increase staffing.
Before September's Democratic primary, the UFA backed Democratic mayoral hopeful Anthony Weiner. The union has not endorsed either Bloomberg or his Democratic rival Fernando Ferrer.
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