Greeley firefighters to get 6% wage increase in 2022 after foregoing raises in 2020

Photo by Daniel Holland via Unsplash.

By Kelly Ragan

Greeley firefighters are getting a raise. 

The City of Greeley reached a collective bargaining agreement with the Greeley Fire Fighters Union Tuesday, an agreement that will begin next year. 

Greeley firefighters will see a 6% wage increase the first year and a 3.75% increase the second year, along with a 2% bonus on their current salary. 

The one-time 2% bonus is set to come from federal dollars as part of a larger retention program focused on folks who worked the front lines during the pandemic. 

The total two-year contract is set to cost the city just under $3 million. 

During negotiations over the summer, the city and the fire union weren’t exactly seeing eye-to-eye. 

About a dozen union members came to a city council meeting in July to voice their concerns that the wages originally put forward weren’t going to cut it. 

Mike Medhurst, the union president (and yes, the Greeley Griswalds guy) told the NoCo Optimist in an interview back in July that the union agreed to 0% raises in 2020 as the city grappled with COVID-19, so they were already behind other comparable areas. 

“We started having other municipalities we traditionally compare with get good raises this year,” Medhurst said. “That combination put us in the bottom of the basement.” 

That stung in light of being on the front lines during COVID-19 and a busy wildfire season, he said. That’s why so many union members came to speak at city council in July.