Chicago Firefighters Are Fighting For a Just Contract
Image by Jack Plant.
During the past two years, four Chicago Firefighters have died on the job, including Jermaine Pelt, an eighteen-year veteran, whose death was ruled a homicide. 2023 alone was, according to the Illinois Fire Institute, the deadliest year for Chicago Firefighters since 1998. So far, 2024 hasn’t seen any deaths on the job, but that should not conceal the fact that death and injury are always close by.
Larry Langford, spokesman for the Chicago Fire Department, told the Chicago Sun-Times last November,
“It is very unusual to have four in-the-line-of-duty deaths in four separate fires within a year,” Langford said. “I don’t remember having four members in four separate incidents in a year [die in the line of duty]. I don’t remember that since I’ve been on the job, that’s been almost 25 years.”
“It hurts to the bone,” Langford said of the string of tragedies. “We’ve gone years and years at a time without any line-of-duty deaths or even serious injuries. [The recent deaths are] almost too much to take.”
With such unprecedented casualties, why has the City of Chicago led Mayor Brandon Johnson refused to agree to a just contract with Chicago Firefighter Local 2? Is Mayor Johnson acting out of spite towards the firemen, who endorsed Johnson rival Paul Vallas for Mayor?
Recently, Brandon Johnson—who was hailed soon after his election as “Chicago’s Organizer Mayor”—added insult to injury when he denied the firemen a permit to march near the United Center, where the Democratic National Convention (DNC) is to be held from August 19-22 to voice their demands to convention delegates. Chicago’s firemen are part of a growing list of activists who have been denied permits to march near the convention center or permitted to march miles away from the view of convention delegates. He should be roundly condemned for this.
Firemen did hold, however, a small demonstration near the NASCAR race during the July 4 holiday weekend that saw over one hundred fires in the city with 109 shot and 19 killed. During the demonstration, union President Pat Cleary told the local NBC affiliate that he met regularly with the city for the last three years to get a new contract to no avail. “It’s a slap in the face, that’s the message that they’re sending to us. They don’t appreciate us.”
“Our medics are overworked,” Cleary said. “We don’t have enough paramedics and besides not having enough paramedics, we don’t have enough ambulances.” Among the union’s demands are to add 20 ambulances to the city’s fleet of 80, and hire more paramedics, with annual pay raises and promotions. “Last month alone – 800 days of overtime. That’s not 800 hours or 800 8-hour shifts, 800 days of 24-hour shifts had to be worked by 10% of our department,” according to Anthony Snyder, director of Emergency Medical Services for Local 2.
Fire department politics is a real mixed bag, where firemen deal with the same issues that the rest Chicago’s public sector workers are in constant battle with city over: wages, pensions, safety, and staffing issues, but these issues are also mixed in with issues of racial and gender justice issues, where the fire department and the firefighters union has been on the wrong side too many times. Unfortunately, Local 2 regularly also endorses for reelection some of the worst people on the city council, many of whom are former firemen.
In 2016, some precincts in communities where firemen live, were the only ones that voted for Trump. As I wrote about the 2023 Mayor’s race,
“The Northwest and Southwest sides, where large numbers of cops and firemen live, saw some of the largest numbers of early voters. Traditionally, they are conservative Democrats—pro-union but hostile to liberalism—with a visible number of Trump supporters.”
It can be a very insular world, where firemen perceive that their only reliable ally is Chicago’s notorious police union, led by John Catanzara. Yet, Local 2 also supported Mahlon Mitchell, the African-American leader of the Wisconsin Fire Fighters for the leadership of the International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF) in 2021. He lost.
Political endorsements for political office, however, should not be the issue when it comes to a contract fight with the city for Chicago’s broad Left or the “Progressives” in the leadership of many local unions, who are almost entirely Johnson supporters. Firemen are workers who deserve our support. There are few better ways to reinforce the worst Trumpian politics among a minority of firemen than being silent or on the sidelines with their very legitimate contract fight with the city.
Chicago’s firemen and paramedics are on the frontline of the urban crisis. Mayor Brandon Johnson should stop stalling and sign a just contract.
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