The Orange County Commission on Tuesday night broke a long stalemate in the contract negotiations with its firefighters union.
Commissioners directed county staff to use the union’s wage and health insurance proposals as they work toward a final version of the contract.
The new agreement will remove unionized firefighters from the county health insurance pool and create a health trust to fund a more tailored insurance plan. It also will retain existing “leapfrog” protections for more tenured workers and guarantee a 5% wage increase after the contract expires…