Cops Torpedo Oversight, Maybe Also Their Nice Contract

Austin-Travis County EMS badges (Courtesy of Austin-Travis County EMS)

As 2022 began, the ruling on the APA's grievance was just being digested; as it ends, the city Labor Relations team has gone 0-3 in its drive to sign new four-year labor contracts with the city's three public safety unions. Negotiations began in March with the Austin EMS Association, with the firefighters and police talks following; only AEMSA ended up negotiating and approving a new contract – for just one year.

The union representing medics was supposed to be the least formidable, but that failed to be the case. (The Austin Firefighters Association can now, thanks to voters in 2021, force the city into binding arbitration, and you know about the police union.) After the city offered new EMS medics a 39-cent-per-hour raise in response to AEMSA's ask for a $7-per-hour increase, talks landed on a $2.75 raise for entry-level medics. The two sides will try next year on a multiyear contract.

Before negotiations with the firefighters even started, city staff tried to sneakily get nullified the power voters had just granted the AFA. This plan got snuffed out when Council caught wind, and lo and behold, the two sides are in impasse. The neutral third-party arbiter will come to town sometime next year to hammer out a final fire contract.

As for the cops, two weeks ago the city and APA stepped away from the bargaining table over the city's surprising firmness in trying to undo the damage the APA's grievance had done to civilian oversight. Both parties are also far apart on pay and benefits; the current contract expires in March.