Austin American-Statesman
AUSTIN — In rejecting a fair and generous contract, the Austin Firefighters Association is engaging in a kind of political extortion to maintain high pay and perks while preserving an outmoded culture at the fire department. That culture has for decades resisted the kind of change Austin leaders have demanded as a way of integrating the department into the greater Austin community. The department is, and has been, a closed club that does not look like the city or reflect its values.
Perhaps firefighters mean to flex their muscle by rejecting a fair contract that the city’s other public safety unions - those of the police and EMS - accepted. Instead, they have conjured ill will. City Manager Marc Ott, who represents taxpayers’ interests, should stand firm in his decision not to go back to the negotiating table. And the Austin City Council should back him all the way.
We remind council members that collective bargaining requires give and take from both sides. We clearly see what the city has been giving to firefighters in bargaining agreements over the past decade. But we continue to question what we are receiving.
At this point, Austin firefighters are the highest paid in the state, earning about 20 percent more than their peers in several other big city departments in Texas. A recent study showed that by their third year, Austin firefighters had a maximum base pay of $77,638. That’s more than $20,000 above the Texas average.
Those benefits reflect the high regard Austin residents have for the profession and the desire to recruit and retain a diverse group of qualified men and women to those jobs. Those goals have not been met.
Even so, the city has shown good faith in bargaining with firefighters and did so in the current proposed three-year contract that awarded firefighters 3 percent pay raises next year if other city employees received 2.5 percent. Otherwise, firefighters would get 2.75 percent. That would rise to 3.5 percent in the third year of the contract. Also, the city’s contribution to the firefighters pension fund would have risen 2 percent this year and 1 percent in the third year of the contract. In return, the city sought more flexibility in hiring and promotion decisions for incoming Fire Chief Rhoda Mae Kerr.
From the start of negotiations seven months ago, union leaders showed callousness toward the city’s economic predicament with unreasonable demands for salaries and benefits. They initially resisted random drug testing and tried to renege on past agreements that opened the door for more women and minorities to be firefighters. That tactless posture might well have to do with the fact that most firefighters - six out of 10 - don’t live in Austin. Too many are disengaged from the Austin community and see their jobs as reliable paychecks that spend well in Giddings, Midlothian (near Fort Worth) and Hallettsville (east of San Antonio).
After months of back and forth, city officials and union leaders shook hands in agreement. That didn’t last long. A few union negotiators went rogue, trashing the contract to the membership, which in turn, voted it down. For the time being, firefighters are working without a contract, meaning they revert to civil service rules.
The sticking point seems to be that the union wants to maintain a hiring and promotions system that protects the status quo rather than cede more of that authority to the new chief. That is on top of squeezing more concessions from Austin taxpayers in the way of pay, perks and pensions.
Union members want a contract on their terms, without regard for the residents of Austin. They have forgotten who pays the bills.
The city manager and council should remind them.