Winston-Salem Firefighters: Underpaid, Understaffed, and Now Losing Their Sick Time— I heard you sir, have a seat.

[u/IronWolfBlaze]

Winston-Salem firefighters are facing a full-scale erosion of their pay, staffing, and safety—and the city is doubling down. Here's what’s happening:

• No step pay plan means firefighters have no guaranteed path to raises. They’re stuck in vague pay bands, creating pay compression and forcing many to leave for better-paying departments.

• Staffing was slashed from 89 to 79 per shift, well below the 4-person-per-truck standard set by NFPA and IFSTA.

• Safety 7 and the air supply truck were eliminated, removing key fireground safety support and equipment resupply.

• Sick time cut in half—from 288 to 134 hours a year. First-year vacation time also slashed from 240 to 112 hours. Even senior firefighters with 20+ years lose hundreds of hours.

• They’re paid 4–7% less than comparable departments in North Carolina despite facing more fires and longer shifts.

• Union President Parrinello was shut down at a city council meeting while trying to speak: “I heard you, sir. Have a seat.” —Mayor Allen Joines

• Meanwhile, Greensboro staffs 156 per shift. Winston-Salem does more with less and still gets punished for it.

• Firefighters are taking second jobs after 24-hour shifts just to get by—this isn’t just morale. It’s a public safety issue.

Full articles here: https://archive.ph/kjuy9
https://archive.ph/7Svig

Watch the mayor shut down the Union President. https://www.youtube.com/live/fYXwPz5VwOw?si=q5WTCgW5HMCwgQSl&t=1h16m5s

[u/Fantastic-Stick270]

288 is a lot of sick leave and most departments don’t have 4 guys on a fire truck. Is PTO and sick separate?

[u/jimmyskittlepop → u/Fantastic-Stick270]

You work for the mayors office or somethin?

[u/ProspectedOnce → u/jimmyskittlepop]

He does sound like a Scab, eh?

[u/Fantastic-Stick270 → u/ProspectedOnce]

Just a FF who likes to stir up shit

[u/jimmyskittlepop → u/Fantastic-Stick270]

Nothin cooler than shooting yourself in the foot!

[u/Fantastic-Stick270 → u/jimmyskittlepop]

Shocking that the mayor is a Dem. Is he well liked by other city employees or departments? Obviously he’s not popular with the FD.

What I’m really trying to say is that it’s bad all over and I wish our unions had actual power. We get walked all over.

[u/ProspectedOnce → u/Fantastic-Stick270]

Volley I bet.

[u/tacosmuggler99 → u/Fantastic-Stick270]

Winston Salem has a population of 250k. Most cities that big have 4/5 on the truck. We run four on engines

[u/queefplunger69 → u/tacosmuggler99]

We have 275K pop in our city, and we run 4 man rigs. We also have an insane amount of hours we get. Comp time is maxed around 480, sick leave you get 7 hours per pay period but there’s no cap, we also have vacation, and holiday banks that just accrue to a max of like 350 and 280 then they just get cashed out once they’re maxed. We can also cash out any of our banked time at any point. We also don’t transport. Saying 288 is a lot and “most only have 3” is an asinine argument.

[u/tacosmuggler99 → u/queefplunger69]

You can cash out time while you’re still active? That’s a sweet deal

[u/queefplunger69 → u/tacosmuggler99]

Yeah. We recently bought a house and I cashed out 8K just as a little extra safety net. We do have a really sweet contract and no I’m not in Ca lmao.

[u/ConnorK5 → u/Fantastic-Stick270]

I think the sick leave is about normal. But cutting it is WILD. I was stunned they had first year guys getting 240 hours of vacation time. That's 4 weeks off. We were only getting 1 week off a few years ago. Now we get 2(so that's like 112hrs or whatever you call it).

[u/just_an_ordinary_guy → u/Fantastic-Stick270]

Vacation and sick leave should always be separate, but some shit heel decided a consolidated PTO bank was "modern" and a bunch of no nothings think old is bad. No one on any bargaining committee should ever give up discrete vacation and sick time unless they hate their members, especially the older members who get sick/injured more often.