AFA, City differ on why firefighter labor contract negotiations ended

AUSTIN, Texas - The president of the Austin Firefighters Association is pushing back on claims made in an Aug. 10 memo released by the City of Austin in regard to labor contract negotiations.

"We have very different opinions on why it ended and who was at fault," said Bob Nicks, AFA president.

The memo stated labor contract negotiations had come to an end because "the AFA advised City management that it would not recommend the agreed contract to its membership."

"The City at the last hour basically said, ‘Listen, if you don't try to sell the contract, we're not going to let you take it to a vote'," said Nicks. "It wasn't that we stopped it. They stopped it."

In the city memo, interim assistant city manager Bruce Mills stated, 

"Management asked the AFA leadership to recommend these agreed contract terms to its members – just as we do for every labor contract with our public safety unions. We do this because it is critical for the AFA membership to see that the contract they are asked to approve is satisfactory to the leadership who negotiated the agreement on their behalf."

A city spokesperson later told FOX 7 in an email:

"The City has been clear with the AFA throughout those discussions that an acceptable result would require tentative agreement by the parties on a complete labor contract. Thus, after reaching agreement with the AFA on all contract terms, it was a surprise to the City when the AFA declined to say that it would support that contract with its membership."

While both parties had turned to neutral arbitration to come to an agreement on the labor contract, attempts to negotiate on their own had continued.

"I think the most insidious thing is that the arbitrator gave us two instructions: ‘I'd like to see you guys negotiate,’ and also, ‘I don't want to know any of the details,’" said Nicks. "And so the city releases this memo saying that we're the bad guys and they're signaling that to the arbitrator. They were told not to do that."

A City spokesperson said the memo was addressed to City Council and was an internal distribution only, though the memo can be accessed by the public online.

"The City did not make any public release of this memorandum and is unaware of the basis for the fire union's claim that it did," said the spokesperson.

Under the contract agreement, Austin firefighters would see a 4% wage raise in September and another 4% wage raise in FY 2023-2024, among other provisions that are listed here.

"While it is possible to say that some individual pay elements for some firefighters in some other cities at some individual points in their careers may exceed the pay for a comparable Austin firefighter, this analysis (can we embed attached document here?) clearly establishes that Austin firefighters are overall the best paid fire department among comparator cities in Texas," said the city spokesperson.

However, according to AFA's analysis comparing AFD to other local fire departments (as well as city departments), Austin firefighters wouldn’t even be the best paid in Travis County.

"Why would people not want to come to Austin, this great town that younger people like to come to? We are renowned for some of the best fire tactics in the nation," said Nicks. "Well, the pay is just too damn low compared to where you can go right next door and quite frankly, have much less of a workload."

An arbitration panel is expected to make a final ruling on the contract in September.