Firefighter Contract with Austin to Expire Today

By Tony Plohetski, The Austin American-Statesman
A three-year labor contract between Austin firefighters and the city will expire today, a day after both sides tried to reach a new agreement during sometimes tense negotiations. On Monday, city and union representatives debated the effects of the current contract’s expiration and said they would keep trying to reach an agreement later this week.

“We will remain in our position of trying to get a contract,” Assistant City Manager Michael McDonald said.

McDonald said that the Fire Department would continue operating as usual and that residents should not see an interruption in emergency response services.

Matters such as pay, hiring and promotion procedures, and how random drug tests would be conducted are among those that have delayed an agreement, which must be approved by union members and the City Council.

Stephen Truesdell, president of the Austin Association of Professional Firefighters, said, “We are continuing to work together, and we are closer on more issues than we were in the beginning.”

Union negotiator Louis Hebert told the city that he thinks provisions in a current contract should remain in place while negotiations continue. But Lowell Denton, an attorney representing the city, said firefighters will return Wednesday under state civil service laws, which set standards for hiring and promotions.

Those laws generally base hiring and promotions on the results of written exams, but in previous contracts, the city has modified the law by adding oral tests and other requirements. Both sides agreed that the immediate effect of the contract expiration will be limited, however.

The department isn’t expected to hire for several months — well after both sides hope to sign a new contract — and a current list of firefighters eligible for promotion won’t expire until next year.

Denton said fire officials also could make other changes because of the contact’s expiration, including how overtime assignments are awarded, but there was no indication Monday that they planned to do so.

Police officers and Austin-Travis County Emergency Medical Services paramedics recently adopted new contracts.

During negotiations Monday, Truesdell presented a new pay proposal similar to what the city had offered, but it also called for a 3 percent contribution to the pension fund in the third year. The city counter-offered with a 2 percent contribution. The two sides are trying to agree on a three- or four-year contract.

City officials also have been trying to get more flexibility in hiring and promotions, saying that they want to increase the department’s diversity, among other things. Truesdell told them Monday that the union would be willing to grant the city certain hiring rights beyond those in state law as long as the process is fair and “ensures that only competent fire cadets are allowed to graduate and serve the citizens of Austin.”

Union representatives also said that they would support random drug testing and that they want to show Austin residents that they are accountable to them.