Fire union agreement to be signed by mayor
Jackson Mayor Harvey Johnson Jr. will sign a proposed labor agreement today with top officials of the International Association of Firefighters, city spokesman Chris Mims said.
Mims wouldn’t discuss the contract’s details, but he said the city has been in negotiations with the union for a long time.
Representatives of the IAFF Local 87, which represents some of the Jackson Fire Department firefighters, could not be reached Monday night.
Fire Capt. R.D. Simpson, the department’s public information officer, said Jackson firefighters were founding members of the national union nearly a half-century ago.
“Not being a member of the union, I don’t know the specifics of the contract,” he said.
Johnson, in his campaign for a third term, lost key union support from the AFL-CIO in March when the state chapter backed one of his Democratic challengers, Frank Melton. Johnson had gotten the AFL-CIO’s backing in his 2001 campaign.
The mayor is scheduled to sign the agreement at 9:30 a.m. in City Hall. The agreement, Mims said, will then go before the City Council, possibly next week.
Clarion Ledger
4/12/5
