Charlotte Firefighters rally for higher pay comparable with police

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Charlotte Firefighters and their families packed council chambers Monday night to send a message about their pay and how it impacts public safety.

“While we cannot sustain even the basics of living where he serves, we are falling behind on sleep, quality time and bills while he’s risking his life running into burning buildings,” Yuliana Melendez Sanjurjo, Wife of Charlotte Firefighter said.

Melendez Sanjurjo spoke on behalf of her firefighter husband. She says he couldn’t attend the meeting because he was working his second job. Something many other firefighters do, too.

“Firefighters work 52 hour workweeks, 12 more [hours] than other departments. Meanwhile, we cannot afford to live within a reasonable distance from the city, which employs my husband,” Melendez Sanjurjo said.

Now Charlotte firefighters are coming together to ask City Council to raise their pay as a part of the next fiscal year budget. They want their pay aligned with the Charlotte Mecklenburg Police Department, where Chief Estella Patterson has asked for 10% salary raises for her officers.

“We’re 16% behind the national average in starting salary, and we’re 8% behind on topped out,” Mike Feneis, President Local 660 said. “Not only that, we used to be the highest paid in the Southeast. Now, we’re not even the highest paid around here locally, other municipalities are offering higher starting salary and better benefits.”

CFD says it struggles to recruit and retain firefighters because many leave to find better paying jobs.

“We need to have the highly trained professionals responding on those trucks when we can’t retain good quality people that could affect response times,” Feneis said.

In addition to pay on par with police, firefighters also want more time to recover from on the job injuries, and better health insurance premiums.

“We’re struggling and we’re not asking for anything out of sorts. We’re asking to be treated equally,” Feneis said.

Charlotte City Council will get a full budget presentation next month.