SOUTH FULTON, Ga. — A local firefighters union says the City of South Fulton is failing to give firefighters a pay raise this year as required by a collective bargaining agreement.
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Several current and retired firefighters protested outside South Fulton City Hall Tuesday, holding signs saying, “Signed Contracts Must Be Honored.”
In December 2023, the city and the International Association of Firefighters Local 3920 reached a collective bargaining agreement. David Roseboro, the union’s local president, said the contract called for a 3 percent raise to be renewed each year unless the city or the union gives notice to cancel. But he said the city never gave notice to the union in 2024 and 2025. Instead, he said, the city argued that the agreement expired at the end of 2024.
“And the city doesn’t want to honor a contractual agreement,” said Mike Johnson, a South Fulton resident who has advocated for the firefighters. “They’re trying to wiggle their way from an agreement.”
The union president told Channel 2’s Bryan Mims that the city gave all other city employees a 4 percent cost of living raise in January 2025, but firefighters were left out. He said the agreement required the city to give cost of living pay raises to firefighters if other city employees receive them, in addition to the 3 percent yearly increase.
In May, an arbitrator ruled that the collective bargaining agreement was still in effect, and the city agreed to give firefighters the pay raises specified in the contract.
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In a written statement, the city said it gave notice to firefighters on Sept. 29th that it takes the “consistent position that its 2023 collective bargaining agreement expired, according to law.”
That means firefighters would not be getting the 3 percent pay raise on Oct. 1st.
The statement said after the arbitration hearing, firefighters received the cost of living pay raise and all retroactive pay dating back to January 2025.
“In good faith, the City continues to work constructively toward a new collective bargaining agreement, and it is hopeful that the next chapter will bring a more sustainable path forward,” read the statement.
Roseboro, in a written statement, said the city council voted to terminate the collective bargaining agreement instead of submitting any counter proposals.
Roseboro’s statement, in part, reads:
The City’s claim that its cancellation of the CBA is immediately effective also ignores the clear language of the Agreement and constitutes another violation. The firefighters have spent years collectively bargaining to reach our current mutually approved CBA. For the City to terminate that CBA because of disagreements is not only improper but makes all the effort put in to improve Labor relations in South Fulton futile.
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