Mayor,Firefighters Correct Report of Negotiations Interrupted

The president of the Everett Firefighters’ Union said reports of them meeting with Mayor Carlo DeMaria in another local publication last week are erroneous – reports that had him breaking off tense negotiations on Feb. 12 to run to City Hall for the City Council meeting to address school funding.

Fire Union President Craig Hardy issued a statement to the Independent late last week saying no such thing ever happened.

“IAFF Local 143, Everett Firefighters Union, has been negotiating with the City of Everett since April 2017 and have been out of contract for 19 months,” he wrote. “Mayor Carlo DeMaria has sat in on negotiations and has never left a negotiating session with our negotiating team. We have another negotiations meeting with the city in the near future.”

Hardy said he wanted to issue something “short and sweet” to clear the record of the erroneous reporting in the other publication.

“I wanted to put something out because I thought it was critical for the public to know what the facts really are so the citizens of Everett know what’s really going on,” he said.

He said they have been out of contract for 19 months and negotiations have been cordial, but he couldn’t say what the sticking points are in the negotiations. However, he was hopeful things could be resolved quickly.

“We are meeting again in about a week and hoping we can conclude it all then,” he said. “Things are ongoing and hopefully we’ll get to one soon.”

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