TAMPA, Fla. — City employees in Tampa are asking for more money.
Multiple unions representing city workers are meeting with leadership this week to see what improvements they can bring back to their members.
At a meeting with city leaders Wednesday, the International Association of Firefighters Local 754 Union president said the most important thing on their priority list is, “the people, the people on the trucks, the people in the stations.”
The firefighters who serve in the city say inflation has made it tough for them to afford to live in the Tampa Bay area with their current wages.
“We will have to increase salaries in order to help recruit people to apply here,” Local 754 President Nicolas Stocco said.
Union leaders say they currently have 30 vacancies in the department, with 11 guaranteed hires on the way.
Stocco says it’s difficult to maintain what they say has been an “increased” and “labor-intensive” workload.
He says the union is worried that if wages don’t increase, they’ll have trouble competing against other areas to bring in new employees to fill those spots who could help serve the nearly 400,000 residents in their jurisdiction.
City leaders say they are listening but that it’s already getting more costly to keep the city going.
“All the goods and services have increased tremendously to run the city,” Tampa’s Chief of Staff John Bennett said.
Bennett says they have to determine how to be flexible with city funds that are landlocked by approved budgets and these once-a-year negotiations — which can be difficult when inflation rates can change monthly.
“Once we make a decision on an increase, it’s a year,” he said. “It’s one time a year. So if we’re too high and it goes down, we have to consider how the public feels about those services. If it’s too low, then we have to worry about our employees.”
City staff also met with the police union that represents officers in Tampa Wednesday afternoon. These negotiations will be continuing next month.