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Westchester Approves New Bargaining Agreement With Firefighters 


The Westchester Fire Department. | File 

Sunday, March 6, 2022 || By Michael Romain || @maywoodnews 

During a regular meeting on Feb. 22, the Westchester village board voted unanimously in favor of an ordinance authorizing a collective bargaining agreement between the village and the Westchester Professional Fire Fighters Local 4851, International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF). 

The IAFF is the union that represents all non-probationary firefighters/paramedics, lieutenants and lieutenant/paramedics in the Westchester Fire Department. 

In a memo drafted Feb. 21, attorney Ryan Morton, with Montana and Welch, the village’s law firm, said the agreement was negotiated over the previous four months by the village’s attorney, IAFF members, Westchester Village Manager Paul Noseka and Westchester Fire Chief Mike Mavrogeorge. 

“The focus of IAFF’s initial request was increased wages and additional benefits including stipends for certifications, increased uniform allowance, and added holidays and vacation,” Morton wrote. 

“The Village was focused on bringing the contract into compliance with new laws that have been instituted since the last contract i.e. Janus and the Illinois Cannabis Act; increasing insurance contributions by firefighters, as was done with the patrol contract, decreasing compensatory time and other costs, and increasing reimbursement for training if a fire fighter moves on to another position,” he added. 

The new contract is effective from May 1, 2021 to April 30, 2024, with a 3.25% salary increase applied retroactively to the contract’s starting date, a 3.25% increase applied on May 1, 2022 and a 3% increase applied on May 1, 2023. 

The employee contribution to insurance coverage increased by 12% this year, before increasing to 15% by May 1, 2023. 

During the meeting on Feb. 22, Chief Mavrogeorge said a lot of the other non-salary-related changes were made to “make the contract more efficient — changes such as removing obsolete language for changing requirements that no longer exist for promotion, things that make it easier for me to able to address shift shortages, things like that.” 

Mavrogeorge said that the changes were made to codify measures that were made within the last year that he’s been fire chief before adding that “it’s a fair contract.”

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