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The Cape Coral firefighters union has unanimously rejected a tentative agreement for a new contract that would have cut pay by 3 percent and increased pension contributions from 7 percent to 9 percent of salary.
The vote, which ran from Tuesday to this afternoon, was 166 to 0 for rank and file members and 11 to 0 for battalion chiefs.
The police union rejected their contract, which had similar terms, by a vote of 185 to 1 last week.
Fire union president Mark Muerth said his membership was put off by comments made by council after the tentative agreement was reached.
“No sooner did I wrap this thing up than, within the following week, we had council members calling for more cuts,” Muerth said.
City spokeswoman Connie Barron said city leadership was disappointed.
“We will obviously reach out to the union leadership to determine exactly what the issues were with regard to them rejecting it unanimously,” Barron said.
