WATERTOWN — The city and the firefighters union are headed to mediation next Wednesday.
The city’s negotiating team and representatives of Watertown Professional Firefighters Association Local 191 will meet with a mediator at City Hall to try to resolve their contract dispute.
“Months ago, I thought we were getting a deal but the thing fell apart,” union president Daniel D. Daugherty said Tuesday.
In November, the two sides seemingly were headed for a new contract, but after meeting for just two hours they jointly declared an impasse.
Mr. Daugherty said he doesn’t know what will happen during next week’s mediation. Both he and City Manager Kenneth A. Mix declined to comment on what has stalled the talks.
Bill Conley, who was involved in previous contract talks, has been appointed mediator.
Last fall, the union’s negotiating team asked to begin contract talks with a different strategy of not having either attorney involved in the negotiations. They met twice that way.
At the time, Mr. Daugherty was optimistic about the new way of handling negotiations, hoping they could be done by the end of the year.
The city will now be represented by Steven G. Carling, whose law firm Harris Beach was chosen for interim attorney services after Robert J. Slye left the city at the end of last year.
Mr. Mix, human resources director Matthew Roy and city comptroller James E. Mills also will be at the negotiating table for the city.
Mr. Daugherty will be joined by a seven-member team that includes the union’s executive committee and the board of trustees during mediation. Attorney Nathaniel G. Lambright represents the bargaining unit.
Last May, the two sides agreed on a new contract that gave the union’s 68 members retroactive 3.25% pay increases for this year and last, but that agreement expired the following month and negotiations needed to begin once again.
It took six years to approve the previous contract as both sides fought during battles in and out of court.
Minimum staffing, the stipulation that 15 firefighters must be on duty at all times, was the sticking point that created hard feelings on both sides. That issue hasn’t been discussed for a while, however.
Legal arguments over arbitration regarding the minimum staffing issue made it all the way to the state’s highest court, with the union winning.
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