BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. — Brevard County Professional Firefighters Local 2969 says Brevard County Fire Rescue has lost 121 emergency personnel since January of 2024.
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Eighteen of them left the department last month alone.
Union President Michael Branson told us, “We’ve always had low pay. We’ve always had overworked mandatory overtime. Making someone work when they decided not to work is become essential for us to operate. The department is not survivable. What triggers a lot of the other conversations that we’re having is just the concern and well-being of these firefighters.”
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Right now, a year one firefighter EMT makes about 47,000 thousand dollars per year, and contract negotiations with the county are at an impasse.
This Thursday, Firefighters and their supporters rallied outside Government Center.
Brevard County resident Darlene Reyes said, “We’re at a critical point. And pretty soon, these firefighters aren’t going to be here for us. And we’re going to call 911, and they’re not going to come because they’re so short-staffed.”
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Inside the government center, county officials sat in a room, hoping to negotiate.
The county posted a legal notice inviting the firefighter’s union to a negotiation meeting.
Branson said the union only had 48 hours’ notice. There was no negotiating today.
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The county shared documentation showing a proposal for firefighter pay increases between 9.6 and 23 percent based on their positions with the department.
County Commissioner Katie Delaney told us she plans to request a 7-year plan for Brevard County Fire Rescue. She added, “We need to look at how we’re doing our procurement. We need to figure out where every cent is going so that we can free up money that is currently in our budget to fund our fire department properly.”
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