Discussions are ongoing between city, firefighters

Contract negotiations between Texarkana, Texas, and the local firefighters union continued Tuesday with the city presenting its preliminary points.

In an afternoon meeting at City Hall, the city’s team led by Deputy City Manager Kyle Dooley delayed discussion of the union’s requested pay raises, instead bringing to the table an informal list of “topics” regarding civil service employment policies.

“We are not done crunching numbers,” Dooley said about firefighter compensation, adding that the city is committed to offering competitive pay but must be fiscally responsible. An across-the-board pay raise city employees received in 2016 will be a factor in talks, he said.

Topics raised included changes in hiring, promotion, discipline and sickleave practices, many of which would provide management more flexibility or

streamline complicated processes.

Under one proposal, the Fire Chief would have discretion to extend a new firefighter’s 18-month probationary period, for example. Another would give the Chief power to negotiate temporary suspensions of any length when a firefighter is being disciplined.

One potential sticking point arose when under the heading of “Definite No’s” the city listed the union’s proposed “past practices” clause. A draft contract presented by the union at a previous meeting states, “Past practices currently in effect and not specifically covered in this Agreement will be continued.”

Bettye Lynn, a labor-relations attorney retained by the city, said such a broad past practices clause is not something either side wants to be saddled with and requested a list of specific practices the union would like to retain.

“With this being the first go around, not knowing or having a baseline on what’s on y’all’s mind that you consider a past practice that you expect going forward, we really don’t have a basis. I think that’s our hesitation about having a clause in there like that,” Dooley said.

“Because otherwise, you’re going to have to have a permanent office somewhere in town, and so will I, because we’ll be in arbitration every day,” Lynn said to Joe Trellez, a district field services representative with the union, International Association of Fire Fighters. Trellez agreed to narrow the clause and revisit the issue in future discussions.

The sides agreed on scheduling five future meetings, all of which will be open to the public: 1:30 p.m. July 11, 1:30 p.m. July 26, 8:30 a.m. July 27, 1:30 p.m. Aug. 16 and 8:30 a.m. Aug. 17. Neither side may raise new issues after the July 11 meeting, according to ground rules established at the first meeting June 14.

In November 2016, Texas-side residents voted to allow the Fire Department to engage in collective bargaining with the city. Firefighters later selected the union to represent them in talks.