Arizona Fire Fighters Win Meet and Confer Rights

November 15, 2007 – A five-year effort by United Mesa Fire Fighters Local 2260 to bring meet and confer rights to Gilbert, Arizona, fire fighters paid off November 13 when the Gilbert Town Council voted 6-1 in support of Town ordinance number 2085 to allow fire fighters and Town management to meet to discuss wages, hours and working conditions.

“I proudly extend my congratulations on a job well done to our members in Gilbert,” says IAFF General President Harold Schaitberger. “Their effort to pass a meet and confer ordinance follows a long history of establishing bargaining rights for our members in Arizona.”

“For the last five years, we have been educating decision makers, getting involved in the community and raising the level of trust within the community,” says Bryan Jeffries, president of Local 2260. “After re-electing three and electing one new fire fighter- friendly Council members, we opened the door to getting this labor-management issue on the Town Council agenda.”

In reviewing the proposal, Town Council expressed some concern about the ordinance’s impact on the Town budget, but Local 2260 was able to point to successful meet and confer ordinances in the surrounding communities.

“We also came back with a list of positive contributions Local 2260 members have made to the Gilbert Fire Department and the community,” says Jeffries. “In the end, the Town Council listened to us, and now our 200 brothers and sisters in Gilbert will, for the first time, have a voice regarding their livelihoods.”

Until the early 1990s, fire protection in Gilbert was delivered by Rural-Metro. The Town ended that relationship in favor of a municipal fire department. During the transition, Gilbert’s professional fire fighters became members of United Mesa Fire Fighters Local 2260, which also represents Mesa and Apache Junction fire fighters.