PROVIDENCE — Twelve for twelve.

That figure, says the city firefighters union, cuts right through Mayor David N. Cicilline’s bluster. The union and the mayor have confronted one another in a variety of important labor arbitrations and court disputes, and the union contends that it has won 12 straight times.

Twelve times an independent arbiter or judge has concluded that Cicilline violated the law or a labor agreement or at least had the less meritorious argument in a quarrel, said Firefighter 1st Class Paul A. Doughty, president of Local 799, International Association of Fire Fighters.

The 12-for-12 rallying cry heartens firefighters, who feel vindicated as they prepare for a high-profile symbolic clash with Cicilline on the downtown streets and sidewalks around the annual meeting of the U.S. Conference of Mayors. They will be joined on picket lines by members of the city police officers union, whose president, Kenneth M. Cohen, has called Cicilline obstinate in his labor relations.

The arbitrations and court disputes have largely preserved for firefighters their health insurance and pension benefits, given them pay raises higher than those garnered by other Providence municipal employees, and, to date, frustrated Cicilline’s effort to make them pay part of the cost of their health coverage.

“Twelve for twelve is implying they got everything they wanted” in those cases, responded Richard I. Kerbel, city director of administration. There were noteworthy achievements for the Cicilline administration in some of them, he contended, such as blocking fully retroactive wage hikes.

The firefighters and the police are the only city unions that have not negotiated a contract with the mayor — or been unable to negotiate one — during his 6½ years in office. Any contracts that they have attained have come through arbitration.

Cicilline has flayed the firefighters in particular for clinging to what he calls bloated wages and fringe benefits and recently demanded that they agree to a seven-year contract that he has spelled out that would save taxpayers an estimated $12 million over its term. At the same time, he insists, the contents would be fair to firefighters.

To add taxpayer insult to injury, he has pointed out that only 55 of the 499 uniformed fire service personnel live in Providence and pay local taxes.

When he was a candidate for mayor, however, Cicilline told firefighters that he agreed with their opposition to an existing mandate that they live in Providence. He won their endorsement and volunteer labor for his campaign. As mayor, he changed his position, and that is one of the irritants that underlie their bitter battle. State lawmakers have subsequently repealed the mandate.

As the heat has been turned up by the expected arrival of thousands of people for the mayors’ gathering, Cicilline and Doughty have made public the contents of their respective contract proposals.

Both proposals set aside, for the time being, the thorny issue of health insurance administration and benefits, in which the parties find themselves at impasse and headed for court-ordered arbitration with an independent lawyer who will declare a winner.

But both sides are still at odds when it comes to health-insurance premiums, pension rules, personnel assignments and manning levels.

On manning, for example, the firefighters propose the elimination of 22 positions, including 12 chiefs’ aides, and the reassignment of two firefighters from engine and ladder trucks to rescue trucks. The two vacancies on the engine and ladder trucks would be filled in 2012. The city wants to eliminate nine firefighter jobs currently assigned to engine and ladder trucks and transfer six of those jobs to rescue trucks; eliminate two jobs entirely; assign one firefighter as the fire chief’s chauffeur.

Firefighters are working under the terms of a contract determined by an arbitrator for fiscal 2005 and the police are working under terms decided by an arbitrator for fiscal 2007. Both unions are in arbitration proceedings for the successive years.

While there are numerous arguments from all sides as to why the firefighters and the police have not been able to come together with Cicilline, one factor is the availability to both unions of binding arbitration on financial matters when contract negotiations fail. Although no employees of cities and towns may strike, by law, teachers and other municipal employees have recourse only to mediation and arbitration that is nonbinding on money.

In binding arbitration, a neutral arbitrator — sometimes a lawyer from out of state — has the whip hand.

State and municipal employers for years have complained that the process is too union-friendly. The unions have replied that the complaints are an excuse for employers’ weak arguments and sometimes poor preparation and that binding arbitration is an essential replacement for a right to strike.

“…The unions don’t have to engage in real negotiations,” complained Jeffrey W. Kasle, who represents the Cicilline administration in firefighters arbitrations. “They know, worst-case scenario, there is going to be a split-the-baby” outcome.

The prevailing wages paid to skilled building tradesmen and the wages and benefits paid to fire and police employees in comparable municipalities are the guideposts set by law for a decision. An arbitrator also is supposed to weigh a municipality’s ability to pay an award as well as the general interest and welfare of the public.

Key contract differences

Health care

•The city wants current firefighters to pay 15 percent of the premium and new firefighters to pay 20 percent.

•The union favors having all firefighters pay 12 percent of their premium, with retirees paying between 1 and 2 percent.

Pensions

•The city wants to reduce retiree cost-of-living adjustments from 3 percent annual compounded interest to 3 percent simple interest; increase to 55 the minimum age to collect a pension and to 25 the minimum number of years of service needed to collect. Reduce annual disability pensions from two-thirds to one-half.

•The union wants to retain the 3 percent compounded provision of the COLAs; increase the minimum years of service to 23; opposes any changes in minimum age or disability pensions.

Manning

•The city wants to eliminate nine firefighter jobs currently assigned to engine and ladder trucks and transfer six of those jobs to rescue trucks; eliminate two jobs entirely; assign one firefighter as the fire chief’s chauffeur.

•The union wants to eliminate 22 positions, including 12 chiefs’ aides; temporarily move two firefighters from engine and ladder trucks to rescue trucks, fill the two ladder-and-engine positions in 2012.

Vacation

•The city wants to eliminate one week of vacation for one year

•The union opposes the move.

Paid holiday

•The city wants to eliminate a paid holiday.

•The union opposes the move.

Correction: A previous version of this story misstated what the city firefighters union proposes that a future retiree would pay as a share of the individual's health insurance premium cost. It would be 12 percent, as opposed to the 15 percent proposed by Mayor David N. Cicilline.

gsmith@projo.com