City, firefighters begin negotiations
Proposal includes raising salaries
Contract negotiations between Texarkana, Texas, and the local firefighters’ union began Thursday with a proposal to raise salaries and increase the number of firefighters on duty.
The two sides agreed on ground rules for the collective bargaining process, scheduled two future meetings and reviewed the union’s initial contract proposal, which would raise Texarkana, Texas, Fire Department’s lowest salary from $38,643 to $47,717 and its highest from $65,161 to $87,144.
Deputy City Manager Kyle Dooley, Human Resources Executive Director Jim Powell and, via phone, attorney Bettye Lynn represented the city. At the table for the union were firefighters Paul Lauk, Eric McCasland, Scott Daniel and Scott Robertson, who serves as local union president, as well as Joe Tellez, a district field services representative with the union, International Association of Fire Fighters.
The city will make a counterproposal during the next meeting June 26, and both sides will make further proposals at a meeting July 11. No new issues may be presented after then.
The requested salary increases were based on a survey of 15 fire departments in Texas cities close in population to
Texarkana, Daniels explained. TTFD salaries were about 23 percent to about 34 percent below the average salaries at those 15 departments, depending on rank, according to the union’s survey.
“We’ll have to look at these numbers. We’ll have to crunch them. Obviously I think most of our discussion will happen when we get back to our response when we get back together,” Dooley said.
Tellez seemed to concede that the proposed raises are more of a starting place for negotiations than something the union realistically expects.
“We have additional data that we’ve used if you need to look at that, but we just wanted to present, get it all on the table, and then we can go from there. …
“I don’t want you to have sticker shock. These were like averages that were done; it shows that the guys here are far behind. I know we can’t get there in one fell swoop, but how can we start crunching into it to where we’re moving along forward and everything balances out to where you’re looking up into more of a median or average pay (commensurate) with the (surveyed) cities? We’ll talk about that later, but that’s kind of our intent,” Tellez said.
McCasland addressed the union’s second priority, increasing the minimum number of firefighters on duty at any given time from 19 to 21. Along the same lines, the union proposes that its Engines 7 and 9 always be staffed with four firefighters, as opposed to the current minimum of three.
TTPD’s automatic assistance to fire departments in Texarkana, Ark., and Nash, Pleasant Grove, LibertyEylau and Wake Village in Texas have further strained a department that was already stretched thin, and additional staffing is needed to meet standard safety and effectiveness guidelines, McCasland said.
“With the current automatic aid agreement that’s been placed on us, the city of Texarkana’s asking our guys to respond and fight 35 percent more fires, oftentimes with 40 percent fewer firefighters than what we were used to doing before the agreement came into place. All the signs point to this is the perfect storm for a firefighter injury or fatality out there,” McCasland said.
The meeting was open to the public, as will be the June 26 and July 11 meetings. Each is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. in the second-floor conference room of City Hall, 220 Texas Blvd.