City Manager Eileen Cabanel announced yesterday that a tentative three-year contract has been negotiated with the Laconia Professional Firefighters Association, Local 1153, International Association of Fire Fighters, the last of the four unions representing municipal employees to reach agreement.
The City Council will consider the contract when it meets Monday evening. Firefighter Chris Shipp, president of the union, could not be reached for comment.
Cabanel said that the terms of the contract mirror those of agreements reached earlier with the three other unions representing municipal employees — the Laconia Police Officers Association, State Employees Association and American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.
The firefighters have agreed to increase their contribution to the cost of their health insurance premiums, from five percent to 7.5-percent in the first year of the contract and to 10-percent in the second and third years. The contract includes annual cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs) of 3-percent in each of the first two years and 2-percent in the third. Finally, the prescription medication program, under which employees pay the first $10, $20 and $30 for generic, preferred and brand-name drugs, has been changed by eliminating the co-pay for generic drugs altogether.
Like the agreements with the other unions, the contract hinged on swapping an Anthem (Blue Choice) health insurance policy for a comparable but less expensive plan offered by Harvard Pilgrim, increasing the employee contributions to health insurance premiums and applying the savings to annual COLAs.
Cabanel projected that the city will trim $167,000 from the cost of health insurance in 2007-2008 by switching all municipal employees, excluding those of the School District, to the Harvard Pilgrim plan. In addition, she estimated the city will save another $40,000 by increasing the premium contributions of employees.
Like the others, the firefighters new contract will go into effect on July 1.
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