Atlanta Firefighters Make Last Minute Push For Parity

Seeking Raise Equitable With Police

wsbtv.com

ATLANTA

It's crunch time for Atlanta's firefighters. Sunday is their last full day to campaign for pay parity with the city's police officers.

From an initial 1% raise offer, Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin is offering a 3.5% raise to the city's firefighters. But the union's president says, that's still not enough.

"Even if the firefighters get a 4% raise, we would still be $2,080 dollars per year behind police," said David Rhodes of the Atlanta Professional Firefighters Union. "So we're hoping to at least get the same pay raise [4%] so that we wouldn't lose any more ground."

The union said it would take about $300,000 to give firefighters the 4% raise. A city report shows Atlanta firefighters are currently paid up to 20% less than other firefighters in the metro area.

Tomorrow, the city council will vote on Franklin's 3.5% offer. But firefighters, involved for several months in a grassroots effort to win public support, hope more council members will turn it down and ask for 4%.

"It's just a matter of the elected officials standing behind us and doing what's fair," Rhodes said. "We're not asking for anything above what anybody else has.

"All we've asked is to be equally underpaid with the police officers."

Channel 2 reporter Alan Wang contributed to this report.

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