North Attleborough Finance Committee Recommends $69,045 Firefighter Contract to Town Council

NORTH ATTLEBORO -- January 13, 2020, North Attleborough Finance Committee unanimously backs $69,045 one-year firefighter contract. The six-member subcommittee voted 6-0 Monday to send a positive recommendation to the full Town Council for Measure 2020-50, a one-year memorandum of agreement with the Firefighters Union retroactive to July 1, 2019 and covering fiscal year 2020. Town Administrator Michael Gallagher told the committee that three-year negotiations had broken down before the union proposed the shorter term, and the deal provides a 2 percent across-the-board wage increase at a cost of $69,045 transferred from the salary reserve account. The MOA also caps outstanding firefighter shift swaps at 16 per individual, a protection Gallagher tied to a well-known liability problem in the Boston Firefighters Union, and adds adoption leave language while eliminating a car seat technician stipend now handled by the police department. The meeting also marked the swearing-in of three new committee appointees: Ron Lagasse, Craig Cameron, a CPA and government-contractor CFO, and Derek Fallon, a lifelong North Attleborough resident.