The union labor contract before members of the Austin Firefighters Association passed 4-to-1 after voting concluded yesterday. Passing by a large margin (487 to 105, or 82% to 18%), the vote seemingly reflected consensus that while the contract didn’t contain everything the union fought for, they still saw it as a fair deal.
Negotiated between the union and the city in relative harmony compared to the acrimony of last bargaining session, it contains three percent pay raises for years 2010 through 2012, although rules stipulating four-person staffing on fire trucks – a priority of the union, which says it promotes safety and faster response times – wasn’t codified in the contract. New rules governing training and hiring, long a sticking point as departments seek to diversify their ranks, are also specified in the contract, to be drafted in collaboration with a third-party, industrial psychology firm.
For more on the contract, see here.
This article appears in December 11 • 2009.