02/02/2025
Attention Citizens of Eustis, WE NEED YOUR HELP‼️ Your Eustis Firefighters have been in contract negotiations with The City Of Eustis Officials/Negotiating Team since Early 2024, and have made minimal progress in ratifying a contract. The Local 4731 has consistently been shot down by the City’s Negotiating Team when simply asking for competitive benefits and pay that mirrors surrounding Fire Departments in the area. The Local 4731 has already “felt the pain”of this poor treatment and lack-luster benefits. Since 2021… the Local 4731 has lost 6 employees to other Fire Departments/EMS Agencies, this is not counting 3 additional individuals who left to start independent businesses. Losing tenured/experienced employees greatly inhibits our Departments growth, in a city that is expanding and growing more and more each day. We will be live-streaming our negotiations here on Facebook with the City of Eustis on 02/05/25 at 9:00AM. We are asking for your support in any/all City of Eustis Commission Meetings.
Some of these bargaining items consist of:
Paramedic Incentive:
City Proposal- $9,975 in 2025
Surrounding Departments:
Lake County Fire Rescue- $12,958 in 2025
Leesburg Fire Department- $13,000 in 2025
Groveland Fire Department- $12,900 in 2025
Annual Wages:
City Proposal- 5% Raise (2025), 5% Raise (2026), 5% Raise (2027)
Surrounding Departments:
Mount Dora Fire Department- 8% Raise (2025), 6% Raise (2026), 6% Raise (2027)
Groveland Fire Department- 10% Raise (2025), 6% Raise (2026)
Ride-Up Engineer Stipend:
City Proposal- $1.00/Hour for said individual riding up out of grade.
Surrounding Departments:
Mount Dora Fire Department- $1.50/Hour for said individual riding out of grade.
Retro Pay:
It has been past practice by the City of Eustis to honor “Retro Pay” if a contract is not ratified by the month of October hence starting a new fiscal year. The City’s negotiating team has stated that they WILL WITHHOLD our wage adjustments until the new contract is ratified, and ARE NOT offering back-pay for the FOUR months (and counting) into our new fiscal year. This is a tactic by the City’s Negotiating Team to force us to sign a contract that is sub-par and unacceptable.
Ways YOU can help:
-Making your opinion heard on social media by commenting on Local 4731 social media posts and/or the City of Eustis social media, and sharing this post so we can spread awareness of this ongoing situation.
-We would like to ask you all to engage in the livestream of our negotiation meetings!
-It is also important that we get citizen involvement in City Of Eustis Commission Meetings.
The Local 4731 is fighting hard to ensure the betterment and strength of our department and for the ability to continue selflessly providing services to the city of Eustis. By your involvement and support to our department we are hoping to come to a fair agreement that reflects similarly to surrounding communities.
