Brookfield’s firefighters have inked a new deal with the village through the end of 2028.
The collective bargaining agreement, which was under negotiation by representatives of the village and the Brookfield Professional Firefighters Local 4828 union from December until April, calls for wage increases for members of the fire department of 4% this year, 3.5% next year and 3% in 2028. Village trustees approved the new contract at their April 27 meeting.
Aside from the wage increases, there were no notable changes from the previous contract, which extended from Jan. 1, 2023, through Dec. 31, 2025, Interim Fire Chief Matthew Dubik said. The contract includes a new monetary incentive to each firefighter who joins a “special team,” he said.
“We’re part of MABAS [Mutual Aid Box Alarm System] Division 10, so we contribute to all the other fire departments around us. It’s nice to have members on the team and be an active participant within the division, so we tried to incentivize them [with] $500 a year for each person who is on a team,” Dubik told the Landmark. “Other than the wages and the incentive, there was nothing substantial.”
Dubik said the negotiations took place substantially from December through late February, when the two sides reached an impasse before negotiating a deal with the help of a federal mediator on April 7, the soonest date the mediator was available.
“The impasse was on wages, the addition of Juneteenth as a holiday, and the village wanted to be able to assign those individuals who were working light duty in other areas than the fire department,” he said.
If a firefighter is injured on the job, they are asked to complete what Dubik called “light work” — think administrative tasks that are less intensive than the regular call of duty — until their doctor says they can return to the rest of their job, Dubik said.
“We wanted to be able to send them to where we needed someone to do clerical work,” he said. “Those three issues were the impasse. We were able to solve and tentatively agree on many things over the three months, and those three things were the hangup.”
During a five-hour mediation session, the two sides compromised. The village dropped its light work demands while the union dropped its request for Juneteenth as an annual day off for the firefighters, Dubik said, and they came to an agreement on wages.
Dubik said he thinks the presence of a majority of union workers within village hall creates parity between members of different departments.
“When there’s an imbalance between one bargaining unit and another, it doesn’t leave a good feeling with everybody else. It’s pretty important to keep all the union contracts up to date and to keep things fair,” he said.
The interim chief said this year was the first time that mediation was needed to settle a negotiation between the village and the fire union.
“I’ve been in the department for 20, almost 25 years, and I’ve never been to or heard of mediation. This was all very foreign to me, and it was a very pleasant process,” he said. “Something new is always a little bit scary, but the federal mediator was wonderful.”
The state of the department
Dubik said he’s acted as interim fire chief since Jan. 5 after former Fire Chief Jim Adams departed in the last week of December with just five days’ notice.
“Jim was here for six years, and he was actually offered a different position somewhere else in the private sector. Unfortunately, it was a take-it-or-leave-it [situation], which led to a quick departure,” Dubik said. “Is that ideal for the fire department or the village? No, but at the end of the day, it was a take-it-or-leave-it thing and a hard situation for him.”
Dubik said the department is seeking to hire six new full-time firefighters in the near future. It currently employs 24 members, and the new hires would bring the total up to 30, he said.
“Our testing cycle just ended April 17, and April 29 … we had oral interviews of all the candidates from our written test. There were 10 scheduled, and two were no-shows, so our current list, which I’m staring at right now, will have eight individuals on it,” he said. “From this list, we will attempt to fill six vacancies.”
