EMS Contract Expires

Illustration by Jason Stout

Meet-and-confer negotiations between the city and its emergency medical services union – the Austin-Travis County EMS Association – fell apart on Monday. Because the two sides walked away from talks without signing a 30-day extension, it remains unclear if and when they will meet again for another round of negotiations. For now, EMS will continue to operate without the hiring and scheduling provisions inside the contract, which expired at midnight on Tuesday morning.

Union president Tony Marquardt said he was "really disappointed" in the dissolution. "I just know our membership works really hard day in and day out," he said. "I had hoped for a lot more. I had hoped that the city manager and the bargaining team appreciated what [medics] do and what we were trying to do on their behalf to … make our workforce more stable to do the things they do best. And that didn't happen."

After a summer spent negotiating, the two sides went into three days of mediation at odds over several outstanding articles, including pay. Labor Relations Officer Larry Watts said they were able to whittle a $13 million gap down to $8 million over the course of two days of discussions. The third day got derailed, he said, when the union's negotiating team said it needed an extension so that it could prepare another wage proposal. The city wanted to stay late into the night on Monday to finish the deal, and wouldn't agree to that. The two sides parted without an agreement being made.

"In the end, we had a 10.5 percent offer on the table," said Watts, qualifying that the figure included the total package and not simply across-the-board pay. "We did disagree that we were going to give them the amount of money that they wanted. However, it is important to know that virtually every issue regarding economics we agreed to make offers on: shift differential, increased education pay, increased stand-by pay. So everything that they raised we responded to."

Marquardt described the city's approach quite differently, comparing negotiations to a used car purchase. Though the entire meet-and-confer process is relatively new to the city, having been established in 2001, EMS's role in those types of negotiations is even more so. It wasn't until 2012 that a change in state law afforded medics designation as civil service employees, and the union worked out a contract with the city under those conditions in 2013 – the same contract that expired this week. Marquardt acknowledged that it's rare to have EMS operating under the civil service umbrella, but said it gave the union a chance to secure concessions that could help the agency ultimately deliver better services to the community. "Most of those things we had big allowances for will now go away, and the hiring process will be a straight civil service exam, rather than medical competency or screening for the most qualified candidates based on the profession," he said.

Marquardt also said that union members will still have certain protections kept in place by civil service, and legal representation and administrative support through CLEAT, of which it is an affiliate. "And I think we have the support of City Council," he said. "With those things, hopefully we'll get through this. … Is this the worst place we've ever been? I can't say that either."

Despite those protections, the fact that medics will move forward with no contract will have serious implications for the strength of their union. The mechanism that affords Marquardt much of his union work time has now gone away, meaning that he'll return to a regular work schedule on an ambulance. Marquardt told the Chronicle that there are contingencies in place for such an event, and that it won't stop him from doing union work on his off days. The executive board will be on hand to assist membership during times in which he is on duty.

City Council is expected to receive a briefing on the breakdown this afternoon (Thursday), and Marquardt notes that he'll no longer be able to attend it. That'll also be true of the Public Safety Commission meetings, and the Tuesday meetings of county commissioners, where he is often seen advocating for his members.

"Lots of things happen there, and there are lots of responsibilities that EMS management seems to fall short on," he said, "and I think that it is unfortunate that they will continue to navigate their course and no one will, probably, be there to point out what the problems are."