After over a year of delay, Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens told Atlanta Fire Rescue Department (AFRD) workers on Monday that he will sign their first-ever union contract with the city. Then, on Tuesday, the firefighter union’s leadership made their budget presentation to the Atlanta City Council, asking for higher pay.
The mayor sent a May 4 letter to Atlanta’s over 900 firefighters saying he’d sign the collective bargaining agreement after their union, the International Association of Firefighters (IAFF) Local 134, sued the city on March 17 for breach of contract over Dickens’ refusal to sign.
The Atlanta City Council had unanimously approved the collective bargaining agreement almost a year earlier, in April 2025. It establishes the framework for the firefighter union to negotiate with the city over issues like pay, promotions, grievances, and training.
“Let me be clear: my support for Atlanta’s firefighters is absolute,” Dickens said in his letter. He invited Atlanta Fire Rescue staff and union representatives to a signing ceremony on May 11 at the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center. That will be followed by a one-year anniversary event for the police and firefighter training facility.
In March, the mayor told Atlanta Civic Circle that he wasn’t signing the contract because then-IAFF Local 134 president Nate Bailey had been improperly elected to a second term last November, seven months after the city council approved the firefighter contract.
Dickens’ about-face came after IAFF Local 134 held a redo election for its president on May 4. AFRD Captain Alvin Rashad won with a resounding 83% of the vote against Lt. Channing Seegar, the union announced on Tuesday.
“This action is consistent with my previous statements regarding the CBA [collective bargaining agreement] and the previously unresolved and internally disputed bargaining agent within firefighter personnel,” Dickens said in his letter to the firefighters, referencing his previous attacks on Bailey’s legitimacy as the IAFF Local 134 president.
Bailey didn’t run in the May 4 redo election, saying he’s been serving for over five years as both the IAFF Local 134 chief and statewide IAFF president. “When Alvin stated he would run for the office, it gave me an opportunity to focus more attention on the state association,” Bailey told Atlanta Civic Circle. “We must protect the rights of our firefighters statewide and ensure safe working conditions.”
“I think Alvin’s going to do a great job, I’ll be right there with him if needs any help,” he added.
Rashad, a 19-year firefighting veteran, had previously served as the vice president of IAFF Local 134. “I look forward to working with Mayor Dickens, the city council, and the fire chief to ensure Atlanta firefighters are treated fairly,” Rashad said in an announcement from the union. His term will run through 2028.
IAFF Local 134 held the redo election because Seegar, Rashad’s opponent, had filed a complaint about the November election for union president, saying he’d improperly been kept off the ballot. Consequently, Bailey ran unopposed.
Seegar missed the qualifying window for the November election because he was on vacation — but the election also had not been noticed 14 days in advance, as required by the union bylaws, Rashad told Atlanta Civic Circle. IAFF Local 134 took responsibility for the bungle, he added, and decided to re-run the election.
Fire union asks city council for a pay raise
Rashad and Bailey formed a united front to make the case for a firefighter pay raise at an Atlanta City Council budget hearing for unions on Tuesday. They said Atlanta Fire Rescue is losing firefighters, because of lower pay and higher healthcare costs than for comparable cities.
The mayor’s proposed FY 2027 budget, released Monday, allocates $146.2 million to Atlanta Fire Rescue, a 6.2% increase over the department’s current $137.7 million budget.
A majority of the council is backing a bill introduced by Councilmember Wayne Martin on April 20 that directs the city “to provide for equitable and competitive” pay for its firefighters by the start of the 2027 fiscal year on July 1.
But Rashad said he’s been informed by the mayor’s office that the proposed increase does not include any raises in firefighter pay. Currently, starting pay for Atlanta firefighters is $58,000, and it tops out at $68,000 after 15 years of service.
At the Tuesday budget hearing, Rashad and Bailey presented firefighter pay data and healthcare costs for cities across the South that showed Atlanta firefighters are the lowest paid in the region with the highest healthcare costs.
“Legacy members are really leaving the department,” Rashad told the council. “Once they start having a family – having a kid or two – and have to pay that [health] insurance, they can’t do it anymore,” he said. “They can’t afford it, so they go to the private sector or other opportunities.”
When Martin asked for examples of recent departures, Bailey said that in the past few months four lieutenant firefighters left for Roswell, a lieutenant-in-training became a Delta Air Lines flight attendant, and two other firefighters returned to their hometowns in Iowa and South Carolina. All of them, he said, cited low pay and high healthcare costs.
“Whatever number the Atlanta City Council and the mayor can get for us to at least be competitive, that’s all we want,” Rashad told Atlanta Civic Circle. “We’re not asking for the highest pay, we’re just asking to be competitive.”
