AUBURN – Local firefighters have followed through on a threat they made last month: They are taking the city to court to get the 2-percent raise laid out in their contract.

Auburn Firefighters Association Local 797 filed a lawsuit against the city in Androscoggin County Superior Court on Tuesday.

The suit asks the court to order the city to give its 61 firefighters the 2-percent raise that was scheduled to begin July 1, under the terms of the employment contract that the union members signed last February.

The firefighters are also seeking unpaid wages dating back to July 1, an additional amount equal to twice the amount of the unpaid wages, a reasonable rate of interest and money to cover the costs of the lawsuit.

The 2-percent raise was scheduled to begin July 1, but city officials told the firefighters in April that they were planning to reopen the contract negotiations because the city wasn’t doing well financially.

A clause in the contract gives the city authority to reopen negotiations if the city’s economic situation changes. City Manager Pat Finnigan has said she is confident that the city has not breached the contract.

But the firefighters contend that the clause in the contract isn’t applicable because the city’s economic status could not have changed that dramatically from February when they signed the contract to April when Finnigan first warned them about not getting the raise.

“Everything that (Finnigan) has shown us to prove the change in the city’s situation was there before we signed the contract,” said Mike Scott, president of the union.

Finnigan has said the city still plans to award 3-percent merit raises, as stated in the contract.

But even with those raises, Scott argued, the firefighters’ wages are not comparable with the wages of other departments across the state.

The city has 20 days from the date that it was served the lawsuit to file its response in court.

lchmelecki@sunjournal.com