A new 5year contract for Windsor firefighters marks the first time in years arbitration was not necessary
Windsor firefighters are celebrating after ratifying the first freely negotiated collected labour agreement with the city since 2006.
"We have half of our department that have never had a freely negotiated contract," says Keith Traquair, president of the Windsor Professional Firefighters Association.
The 5-year-deal saw 95% of the 240 members vote in favour, ending a string of arbitrated settlements for city firefighters.
The agreement is retroactive and expires December 31, 2019.
Traquair isn't going to worry too much about getting back to the bargaining table to start hammering out the next agreement with the newly ratified deal set to expire in just 18 months.
"We're going to have some labour peace with the city and start building on a relationship, building our relationship, which is going very well — that's how we get a collective agreement," says Traquair.
Windsor city council voted on the deal last week.
According to Traquair — it feels good to have deal settled without a judge.
"When you can have a say in where you're going, there's no better decision you can have," says Traquair. "Choice is a great thing and you make the choice so, it's something that you don't want your choice taken away from you."
He points to a well rounded deal as the reason for the strong support from firefighters.
"Parity with police, increases in multiple divisions so, everyone saw this as a positive for a lot of people. It wasn't one big gain in one area that someone wanted, it was smaller gains all around which people thought was a fair deal," says Traquair.
Voting was carried out on Monday and Tuesday.