FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Statement from IAFF Local 73 on Pay Parity and the Police Chief’s Remarks

ST. LOUIS — IAFF Local 73, representing the men and women of the St. Louis Fire

Department, issues the following statement in response to remarks made by Police Chief Robert Tracy characterizing pay parity between the city’s firefighters and police officers as “bad business” and suggesting that the provision be eliminated:

Pay parity between St. Louis firefighters and police officers is not a policy preference. It is a provision of the city charter, approved by 64.5 percent of voters and upheld by a Missouri Circuit Court as recently as 2019. It reflects a straightforward principle: the men and women who protect this city from fire, who answer and respond to its emergencies deserve to be compensated equally with those who police its streets.

Chief Tracy’s suggestion that police officers face inherently greater risk than firefighters is not supported by the evidence. The Bureau of Labor Statistics consistently ranks firefighting among the most dangerous occupations in America, with fatality rates comparable to law enforcement and a nonfatal injury rate of approximately 9,800 per 100,000 workers, nearly double any other high-risk profession. In 2022, the International Agency for Research on Cancer classified firefighting as carcinogenic to humans at the highest level.

The St. Louis Fire Department responds to more than 105,000 calls for service annually. Our members serve as the city’s primary EMS provider, its hazardous materials response force, and its technical and water rescue capability. Our members are experts in prehospital medicine, chemistry, engineering, public education, building codes and investigations. To characterize our work as secondary to any other public safety function is to fundamentally misunderstand the scope of the modern fire service and to disparage our professional members.

We recognize these remarks for what they are: a budget argument, not a policy argument. The police department, now under state control, is engaged in an ongoing fiscal dispute with the city, including a $68 million funding claim a judge rejected on June 2, and a same-day proposal for double-digit command staff raises.

Pay parity is being targeted not because it is “bad business”, but because it increases the cost of every raise the police department negotiates for itself.

Local 73 has no quarrel with the rank-and-file officers of the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department. We work alongside their brave officers every day, on the same scenes, facing the same dangers. Our issue is with any effort — from any quarter — to undermine a voter-approved protection that has served this city for more than half a century.

‍“The voters of St. Louis settled this question in 1970, and the courts affirmed it. We will continue to defend pay parity as long as it takes. The men and women of this fire department earn their compensation on every call, every shift, every day – and have shown themselves to be among the finest public safety professionals in the county on countless responses. That is not bad business. That is the standard this city set for itself."

Dan Clark

President

St. Louis Firefighters

IAFF Local 73

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