Fulton firefighters push for wage increase

Fulton firefighters are fighting a different fire these days after the city council voted 7 to 1 against a union contract that would have given them a 9 percent raise.

City administrator Bill Johnson recommended the council reject the raise and ultimately the contract because he said 9 percent is too high and unfair to other city employees who may also need a wage increase.

The vice president of the fire union, Todd Gray, said the 9 percent wasn’t much and would bring 22 firefighters to an average salary that he said would compare to other cities.

According to numbers from the city, firefighters in Fulton make a starting salary of about $8.65. This is lower than cities such as Moberly and Maryville, which pay $8.97 and $11.45, respectively.

Johnson said he knows the wage is a bit low but used those same numbers to point out the total average salary for a firefighter in Fulton was about $28,360, which is greater than the city of Moberly in total averages.

He hopes they can look into the budget for wage raises across the board for 2016.

“In my opinion we are not taking advantage of them,” he said. “We have awesome firefighters. They are very dedicated they are well trained, they respond, they really care about the community but this is the wages that we pay in Fulton.”

Gray said for the work the firefighters do, they shouldn’t be paid a salary that he said qualifies some of the firefighters for free reduced lunches.

“It’s unfortunate that the administration feels that their firefighters are only worth $8.64 an hour,” he said. “We had a fire this morning and our guys were showing up and were willing to put their lives on the line to protect that house and the lives.”

Johnson said the firefighters original contract did not allow the city to raise the wage, but now that the contract has failed, the city won’t limited by the salary restriction.

Gray said those wages were actually a minimum and the city could have still raised them at any time.