After over a year of negotiations, Orange County commissioners sided with the local firefighters union Tuesday on contract proposals that will deliver double-digit percentage raises for Orange County firefighters, bringing them closer to the salary levels of their peers in other local municipal fire departments.
The show of support from the seven-member board of county commissioners, which includes the mayor, came after hours of testimony during a marathon meeting from both county attorneys and union negotiators.
“I think we’re unified around the notion that we want our firefighters to be paid a competitive wage,” said Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings, who previously worked in public safety as a county sheriff. “We love our firefighters. We want them to be able to take care of their families.” At the same time, he acknowledged, “We don’t have unlimited money.”
Union members and their families packed the commission chambers Tuesday, wearing red shirts proudly touting their affiliation with their union, the Orange County Fire Fighters Association.
The union, a local affiliate of the International Association of Fire Fighters, represents more than 1,300 firefighters, paramedics, emergency medical technicians, and fire inspectors in Orange County Fire Rescue who help protect the safety of the county’s 1.4 million residents, in coordination with other local municipal agencies in Orange County, such as the Orlando Fire Department.
The new collective bargaining agreement negotiated by their union, effective through Sept. 2027, adds 48 hours of paid leave for inpatient mental or behavioral health treatment for firefighters (currently there is no guaranteed period of time for treatment afforded to them) and ensures a pathway toward the creation of a healthcare trust for firefighters — as an alternative to their current health insurance options — by January 2027.
Importantly to members, the contract also raises starting pay for firefighters by $12,000 and offers double-digit raises for firefighters with more years of experience. Local firefighters work roughly 48-hour workweeks, generally on 24-hour shifts.
“Firefighters face unpredictable, high-risk situations every day,” said Joshua Pierce, a 22-year firefighter, speaking to Orange County leaders Tuesday in a red union shirt. “To keep experienced, highly trained professionals, we must offer competitive pay and a predictable wage scale that rewards experience and encourages longevity. Without it, we risk losing skilled firefighters to other departments, increasing turnover and training costs.”
According to data compiled by the county’s legal counsel, the proposed pay raise brings Orange County firefighters nearly up to speed with other surrounding departments, with a new starting salary of $59,072, up from $47,245, that could rise even further to $62,025 after recruits complete a 10-week orientation.
This is still below the annual pay afforded to firefighters employed by the Orlando Fire Department, for instance, which starts at about $64,000 under a new contract their union ratified last November.
Union leaders say that firefighters in Orange County Fire Rescue have taken notice of these gains.
Jon Shirey, union president for the Reedy Creek firefighters’ union in the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District near Disney (formerly known as the Reedy Creek Improvement District), joked during the public comment portion of commissioners’ meeting Tuesday that although he wanted to see a better union contract for firefighters in Orange County, “Selfishly, this debacle over the CBA [collective bargaining agreement] has really benefited my department.”
Shirey said his fire department has hired 20 former Orange County firefighters over the last year alone, largely over differences in pay. Under the Reedy Creek Fire Fighters’ union contract, negotiated in 2023, annual firefighter/EMT pay begins at $56,000, or $66,000 for firefighter/paramedics.
“As I met with these firefighters, asked them why they left, the answers have been consistently the same. It is pay, and the inability to guarantee movement through the pay plan, pretty much across the board, is what the answers were,” Shirey told county commissioners Tuesday.
According to the Orange County firefighters’ union, the county has lost over 150 firefighters over the last year alone. “What we are experiencing right now is not sustainable,” said Chris Ritchie, the Orange County Fire Fighters Association Local 2057 president. “We’ve lost hundreds of firefighters and thousands of years of experience, not by accident, but because key systems haven’t kept pace for almost 30 years.”
“The people that are in this room … they are committed to Orange County and the department, and that commitment should matter,” he said.
A long time coming
The contract proposals, still subject to approval by union membership, is a long time coming.
Firefighters’ last union contract with Orange County expired Oct. 2024, and they’ve been in negotiations with the county for a new one since Sept. 2023. After reaching a deadlock in negotiations last year, the county and union advanced to an impasse hearing to get recommendations from an independent special magistrate, who serves as a neutral third party.
The primary issues at play were health insurance and compensation. The union fought for and won the establishment of a healthcare trust, to be operated by a union-appointed board of trustees, despite opposition from the county’s legal team. The union pitched this new trust as a more cost-efficient option for firefighters’ health insurance, arguing employer contributions would be lower than what they are under the current status quo.
County commissioners and Demings (a term-limited mayor running for Florida Governor this year) sided with the union, and now the two parties have 60 days to hammer out the finer details of what this will look like. “There are so many inflexibilities right now in government, and to hear that there may be a way to take care of some of these health needs that have never had a way to be taken care of makes me feel optimistic for everybody,” said District 1 commissioner Nicole Wilson.
Compensation was another sticking point. Although both sides largely agreed on the pay raises, there were nuances within their wage agreement that became a subject of dispute, including the union’s proposal for a guaranteed 5 percent pay raise for firefighters each year, even after the current contract expires.
The county’s legal team argued this was fiscally irresponsible — pointing in part to expected ramifications to the fire department’s funding if Gov. DeSantis’s goal to eliminate property taxes moves forward — but the union won this fight with the support of county commissioners who didn’t want to see firefighters fall behind on pay again if contract talks drag out in the future.
But pay wasn’t the only issue on the minds of firefighters and their families.
Shelly Ritchie, the wife of 24-year firefighter and union president Chris Ritchie, also highlighted the importance of workplace protections and access to healthcare. “This isn’t just about dollar figures, it’s about what these men and women carry home after every shift, the calls they can’t shake.”
She recalled her husband walking right past her one morning without a word after getting off a shift, “and I found him in bed with our youngest daughter, holding her and crying because he had just ran a call that left a parent grieving for the child that they had just lost.”
According to the National Fallen Firefighters Association, firefighters face a higher risk of suicide compared to the general population. They’re also at higher risk for developing post-traumatic stress disorder from what they’re exposed to on the job.
The union, and its members, have framed the importance of securing a strong union contract as a public safety issue, arguing that taking care of firefighters is a way to help ensure they can effectively protect the community as well.
Finer details of the contract, including the establishment of the healthcare trust, still need to be finalized by the union and county attorneys. A final contract is then subject to ratification by union membership and the county commission.
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