{"id":402682,"date":"2026-07-17T21:06:35","date_gmt":"2026-07-17T21:06:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/402682\/"},"modified":"2026-07-17T21:06:35","modified_gmt":"2026-07-17T21:06:35","slug":"after-16-years-firefighters-union-and-long-beach-city-council-sign-contract-herald-community-newspapers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/402682\/","title":{"rendered":"After 16 years, firefighters union and Long Beach City Council sign contract | Herald Community Newspapers"},"content":{"rendered":"

The saying is that firefighters run in when others run out. Whether it\u2019s a quick response to a local restaurant fire or sending crews to a nearby town for support during a callout, the Long Beach Fire Department<\/a> doesn\u2019t hesitate to live up to those expectations.<\/p>\n

During the July 7 City Council meeting, council members announced the end of a 16-year drought in contract negotiations between the city and the Long Beach Professional Fire Fighters Association, after an agreement was reached to certify a multi-year contract that began almost immediately and stretches until June 2030.<\/p>\n

Long Beach is the only municipality on Long Island with a paid cohort incorporated into the local fire department. Together, 24 paid firefighters work alongside more than 130 volunteers to keep the city and neighboring towns safe. The previous contract between the paid firefighters and the city went into effect in July 2004, and expired in June 2010. The extended interim without a contract was attributed to general difficulties in negotiation that were eventually overcome by both sides.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been at the top of our agenda as a council,\u201d City Council<\/a> President Brendan Finn said. \u201cStarting in \u201924 through \u201925, and here we are in \u201926 with a new council. We saw that it was really, obviously, way overdue. I applaud Dan Creighton\u2019s \u2014 I would call them herculean efforts to bring this over the finish line,\u201d Finn added, referring to the city manager<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The new contract outlines salary structure, benefits, responsibilities and expectations of the paid employees. Among its provisions are a continued work schedule of 24 hours on duty, 72 hours off; a starting salary of $60,000 for first-year firefighters \u2014 increasing for those who get advanced certification as paramedics \u2014 with a 2 percent annual pay increase until 2030, and no-cost health insurance for those hired before March 11, 2021. Firefighters hired after that date will contribute 5 to 15 percent of their health insurance costs, depending on the length of their career.<\/p>\n

At the council meeting, Catherine Lewis<\/a>, vice president of the International Association of Fire Fighters Local 287, spoke on behalf of the Professional Firefighters Association. \u201cWe\u2019re extremely proud to have reached an agreement that allows us to move forward together,\u201d Lewis said. \u201cIt provides fair, livable wages for our cross-trained firefighters, strengthens our ability to recruit and retain exceptional personnel and reflects our shared commitment to the community we are privileged to serve.\u201d<\/p>\n

The contract continues a series of investments the city has made in the Fire Department in recent months. In January, the City Council authorized the purchase of nearly $80,000 in bunker gear \u2014 the protective jackets, pants and boots that firefighters wear on calls. In April, the department added a new ambulance to the fleet of service vehicles for EMS and paramedic-related responsibilities, which complements a new tower ladder truck added last year. Last month, the department received authorization to renovate the sleeping quarters, locker rooms and showers at its National Boulevard barracks.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The contract\u2019s announcement was met by several rounds of applause and praise from many attendees. Ruth Orellana, a Long Beach resident for nearly 50 years, shared a story about the LBFD. \u201cLast year, my grandchildren were in a horrific car accident in the West End,\u201d Orellana recounted. \u201cI almost lost my three grandchildren and my son-in-law, but thank God that they\u2019re here. Thank you to these people that work here for us. These guys, they saved my grandchildren.\u201d<\/p>\n

Each City Council member acknowledged the department\u2019s hard work, and looked forward to continued cooperation. Councilman George Ennis said he saw the new contract as an optimistic sign after more than a decade and a half of obstacles at the negotiating table.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe knew it wasn\u2019t going to be easy, and it wasn\u2019t,\u201d Councilman Michael Reinhart said. \u201cBut at the end result, it\u2019s good for the F.D. It\u2019s good for the city. Everybody\u2019s protected and we got the contract. We couldn\u2019t be more thrilled.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The saying is that firefighters run in when others run out. Whether it\u2019s a quick response to a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":402683,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[161576,161575,131,14901,133,132,161574,4694,56699],"class_list":["post-402682","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-long-beach","tag-catherine-lewis","tag-international-association-of-fire-fighters-local-287","tag-long-beach","tag-long-beach-fire-department","tag-long-beach-headlines","tag-long-beach-news","tag-long-beach-professional-fire-fighters-association","tag-new-york","tag-union-contract"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402682","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=402682"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402682\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/402683"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=402682"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=402682"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=402682"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}