Union leader says 22 firefighter positions were removed from Portsmouth budget and urges council to enact collective-bargaining ordinance

Tiffany Stewart, a lieutenant paramedic who identified herself as executive vice president of IFF local 5 39 representing Portsmouth's firefighters, paramedics and dispatchers, told the city council on April 28 that 22 positions originally requested for the fire department were removed from a later budget draft without discussion.

Stewart said the positions were tied to documented safety citations and to federal and state standards. "Positions that were tied to a documented safety citation have been removed and justified by a process that the city refuses to follow through on," she said, arguing the change harms safety and is "fixable" through staffing and budgeting.

Stewart said the budget office told the fire chief the new positions were being paused pending the start of collective bargaining. She referenced council resolution 23-373, passed Nov. 14, 2023, which authorized collective bargaining and required an ordinance to establish its terms. "That ordinance has never been brought forward," she said, adding: "You don't get to use collective bargaining as a justification for cutting safety obligations when you've spent 6 years refusing to engage in it."

Stewart urged council to restore the positions and to "produce the ordinance that you committed to in 2023," calling for clarity about whether the city intends to implement local collective-bargaining authority or stop citing it as leverage.

Council members did not take a vote on staffing at the meeting; the council will consider budget items at the scheduled budget-adoption meeting in early May. City Manager Steven Carter acknowledged receipt of public concerns and the need to review budget materials with staff, but did not announce a specific change during the session.

Why it matters: The removed positions were linked in public remarks to a safety citation and to staffing protocols that speakers said affect on-scene firefighter safety and patient care. Restoring funded positions or clarifying the collective-bargaining timeline would affect department staffing, response capacity and budget priorities ahead of the May budget adoption vote.

Next steps: The council will vote on budget items at its budget-adoption meeting scheduled for the first May meeting; union leaders requested the ordinance implementing collective bargaining be brought forward and for staffing restorations to be considered prior to that vote.