Memphis Fire Fighters Association President Thomas Malone explains why their union is suing the City
Ezekiel Telemaco
The firefighters’ union is suing the city for underfunding a promised 5% pay raise.
MEMPHIS, Tenn. — The union representing Memphis firefighters has filed a lawsuit against the City of Memphis, accusing city officials of violating a legally binding contract by underfunding a promised pay raise.
Thomas Malone, president of the Memphis Fire Fighters Association, says the city is going back on a three-year agreement that was signed last fall, which included a 5% raise for firefighters starting July 1, 2025. However, the city council only funded a 3% raise in this year’s budget.
“This is the first time in my lengthy career that anything like this has occurred, where they just said, we change our mind,” Malone said in an interview with ABC24.
“How do you trust this system going forward? How do you trust these two entities going forward? Both groups agreed to the 5% for the firefighters,” Malone said, referring to both the Memphis City Council and Mayor Paul Young, along with other city officials.
“There was not one dissenting vote on the council last year when we went to the council for impasse. Everybody voted for it — the mayor put it in his budget,” Malone said. “I’m still at a loss for what happened and why this happened?”
The union argues the city’s decision to underfund the agreed-upon raise is already having consequences.
“We’ve had over 80 people resign this year already,” Malone said, noting that doesn’t include retirements.
“Right after this occurred, we has six that left to resign to go work in a suburban city and make more money,” Malone said.
The union filed the lawsuit in Shelby County Chancery Court, asking a judge to enforce the contract or order binding arbitration.
“If this is the way they do business, how could we move forward with this process when the impasse ordinance says it shall be done once they agree to it?” Malone said.
Malone also expressed frustration over what he described as silence from city leadership after the budget decision.
“We waited two weeks after the budget before we filed a lawsuit, hoping that someone would come to the table, call us and say, ‘We’re going to work this out,’ [or] ‘We’re going to do this,’ [or] ‘We’re going to do that.’ We have not had a word from anybody since before they did it. And since it’s been done, we have not had a conversation with anybody about why it’s done or what we’re going to do about it or nothing,” Malone said.
The City of Memphis has not yet responded to the lawsuit in court.
ABC24 reached out to the Memphis City Council for comment. A spokesperson declined, citing the pending nature of the case.
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