Providence, firefighters' union approve 5-year contract, ending long standoff

PROVIDENCE, R.I. - Both the city council and the firefighters' union approved a new five-year contract for firefighters on Thursday night, resolving a prolonged period of labor discord over staffing levels, overtime amounts and a work schedule that firefighters had decried as unsafe.

The covenant with Local 799 of the International Association of Fire Fighters was hammered out during mediation sessions with retired state Supreme Court Chief Justice Frank Williams and reviewed by the council's finance committee in recent months.

It runs from 2017 through 2022 and it will restore the department's old four-shift workweek.

Since August 2015, firefighters have operated on a three-shift work week and a return to the previous schedule was a key bargaining goal.

Read more: http://www.providencejournal.com/news/20170105/providence-firefighters-union-approve-5-year-contract-ending-long-standoff