Editor’s note: The Professional Firefighters of The Villages IAFF 4770 issued the following statement about contract negotiations with The Villages Center Community Development District.
The Villages Center Community Development District and The Villages Local 4770 have been involved in negotiation since February 20, 2017. Since the start of negotiations we have met five times and have come to an agreement on many of the articles. As of June 12, 2017 The Villages Center Community Development District has declared impasse. The hold up between the District and the Local 4770 is that there is no value of the current employee. The district is offering to raise stating wages without fairly compensating the current, experienced employee. The Local 4770 is going to remain in negations with the district until a date is set to meet with a jointly selected special magistrate.
Through the research conducted by the Local 4770, we have found that we are amongst the lowest paid departments in central Florida and are one of two departments in the state without a defined pension retirement plan. These facts have caused the department to experience staffing shortages and a drastically high turnover rate. This has led to the department being a training ground or stepping stone for many previous employees to leave for better pay and retirement; this will continue if things do not change. The Villages Fire/Rescue is currently running two man ladders and engines, when the industry standard is three to four. Through the research done by the NFPA is found to be unsafe and far less efficient to operate with anything less than three. It is the main focus of the Local 4770 to resolve these issues by coming to an agreement that will allow us to compete with departments that are currently taking our experienced personnel. This community deserves more and we will continue to fight to be able to provide just that.
We thank everyone for the continued support,
IAFF Local 4770 Union Officials
