James Duckworth stood at the corner of North Main and Centre Street on Friday afternoon, dressed in a red T-shirt and holding a sign that read “Fair pay isn’t optional.”
Fellow firefighters stood beside him, their own signs raised high.
It wasn’t the first time Duckworth and his colleagues had taken to the streets with signs, pressing the city of Concord to reopen negotiations on the fire officers’ contract and secure a pay raise. Just last month, they staged a similar demonstration at a city council meeting.
“This is really just the beginning. We’re not going to stop,” said Duckworth, the president of Local 3195, which represents fire officers. “You’ll see us again around the city. You’ll see more of these signs that continue to sort of point out the unfairness of what’s going on.”
Concord firefighters waited years for a wage study they hoped would finally show their pay had fallen behind comparable departments and pave the way for contract negotiations. The city had agreed that once the study was complete, it would return to the bargaining table.
Now that the results are in, the study appears to validate firefighters’ concerns. It found that Concord pays the fire department’s leadership less than their counterparts in similar cities.
But instead of using the findings as the basis for a new contract, firefighters say the city has walked away from negotiations in June. The fire officers’ union and the city began their negotiations in March.
The city’s letter announcing that it was closing negotiations stated that it “was not in a position to add additional compensation to existing contracts at this time, given the pressing financial needs of the city and the increase in property taxes occasioned by local school district budgets.”
“Where did the money go?” asks a sign propped on a truck parked near the demonstrators, the very question on firefighters’ minds after the city told them there wasn’t enough money to go around.
For department members like Sam Atkins, a firefighter paramedic who has spent the last five years with the Concord Fire Department, the city’s priorities don’t seem to be in the right place.
In recent years, Concord has poured money into major projects, including the $41 million construction of a new police station and the $6 million renovation of the Beaver Meadow clubhouse.
“I see a lot of city projects that are going on. There’s a lot of promises that have been made by our city council, and as an industry that’s built on honor and helping others, it feels very disrespectful not to have our own deal,” Atkins said. “To kind of know over the past five years that my commitment to the city hasn’t been as matched by those above me has definitely been disheartening.”
Turnover in the department has also climbed, with many firefighters leaving within just a few years for departments elsewhere that offer better pay. It’s also left Concord’s fire department short-staffed and struggling to fill vacancies.
Meanwhile, the city is pushing to grow its housing stock by approving new apartment building projects.
But Duckworth said there’s been no discussion about how the department, already stretched thin, would keep up with serving all those new residents. The department, he said, has been “overlooked in a lot of ways.”
Since the city sent its letter, union leaders say there’s been no outreach, no attempt from the city to bring negotiations back to the table, except for a few city councilors reaching out to understand their case.
That silence, Duckworth said, has left department members “enraged that they would be treated this way.”
The firefighters said that protesting isn’t something they wanted to do, but it’s become necessary given the city’s refusal to negotiate.
All they’re asking, according to Atkins, is for the city to honor the commitments already laid out in their contracts.
“We want to see the city coming back to the table in good faith,” he said. “Just have a good, respectful conversation between the unions and the city. Just to kind of be able to come together as adults and respect each other.”
