Tensions high as City Council discusses possible MFD pay raise; firefighters’ union responds
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- Dec 3, 2025
MEMPHIS, Tenn. – Tensions were high Tuesday night as the Memphis City Council talked about giving Memphis firefighters another raise.
“Y’all are wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong,” Councilwoman Yolanda Cooper-Sutton said. “And God sees your intentions and sees your hearts and he’s gonna deal with each and everyone of us accordingly.”
It got so heated that some portions of the city’s livestream of the meeting appeared to have been removed.
FOX13 has previously reported on the Memphis Fire Fighters Association Local 1784’s lawsuit against the City of Memphis over pay. Firefighters are getting a 3% raise instead of the 5% the group says it was promised. Last month on FOX13’s Good Morning Memphis, Mayor Paul Young said he found a way to give firefighters that extra 2% without raising taxes.
“This will be my second budget but it’s always the same players, the same gatekeepers that come asking for money from a poor city,” Cooper-Sutton said. Councilman Jeff Warren added, “In my mind, it seems like this solves a bunch of problems and it’s not going to change the budget deficit at the end.”
Some councilmembers said the firefighters’ union is taking advantage of the city with its repeated requests for raises. The day after the meeting, Memphis Fire Fighters Association Local 1784 responded one of the councilmembers saying that the union was “raping the city” and called the comment “shameful, reckless, and unethical.”
The union’s full statement is below:
“Last night, a Memphis City Council member accused our firefighters of raping this city. They don’t rape our city; they serve our city. The service and sacrifices of the men and women of the MFD is second to none, garnering national recognition. Our Firefighters serve the city each and every day with the utmost honor and dedication. They take an oath to lay their lives down for citizens they don’t know and have never met. They respond to 500 + calls every day, providing the best fire and EMS services in the country. Our fire department runs more calls than every other fire department in this county combined. Our Firefighters see more in one day than most citizens will see in a lifetime.
A 5% raise for 2025 was unanimously approved by the council in 2024 and then reduced by the council in 2025 to 3%. Our Firefighters are simply wanting the 2% restored on the originally approved 5%. To have those efforts compared to rape is a shameful, reckless, and unethical comparison. The council has recently addressed the negotiation process and how to improve it moving forward, all while at the same time not honoring the very process they voted in favor of in 2024. The council failed to honor its own vote. City government’s primary responsibility is to provide services to citizens and visitors. That includes paying the people providing those services. Memphis Firefighters aren’t raping our city; they’re doing their JOBS. At some point, we must return to a time where we can trust our elected officials and believe they’re going to do the right thing. When will that time be?”
On Tuesday night, councilmembers ended up voting to discuss the issue again in two weeks. FOX13 has reached out to the firefighters’ union to learn about its next steps.