Tulsa Firefighters Finalize New Contract With City After Arbitration

Tulsa Firefighters will get retroactive pay raises, and a city pandemic stipend, now that they have a finalized contract with the City.

The firefighter’s union rejected the City’s final offer in November, triggering arbitration that was settled Tuesday night. Union President Matt Lay said the contract through arbitration was because the City kept offering little or no raises while it has the ability to adjust salaries to other similarly sized cities.

”If you're not giving raises when the revenue is down, and you're kind of being arbitrary when revenue is up, at what point are firefighters going to get to that market wage?” said Lay.

The arbitration ruling, in favor of the City, gives most of Tulsa’s 656 firefighters raises ranging from 11 to 13%, with back pay to July 1, when the contract actually started.

Mayor G.T. Bynum said the pay raise will make the City more competitive for the best recruits, while it honored the sacrifices of current employees.

The mayor said he was “grateful to resolve the contract and get firefighters the pay they have earned.”

Talks on the next contract for 2022-23 will start soon.