SAN ANTONIO – The San Antonio City Council ratified a new three-year contract with the San Antonio Professional Firefighters Association, marking the first time in 15 years the two sides have successfully collaborated on a deal.
Council members voted 10-0 on the same day they approved a nearly $4 billion city budget.
Councilwoman Marina Alderete Gavito (D7), whose brother was on the union’s negotiating committee as a representative of its legislative committee, abstained from the vote. Alderete Gavito said the city attorney’s office had said she could vote, but she wanted to avoid an appearance of bias.
The union already ratified the contract Monday with 97% approval.
The contract includes raises worth 21.3% over three years, which are bolstered by a plan to roll certain incentive pays firefighters and paramedics already receive into their base salary.
Pay was the biggest issue for firefighters, who have seen their pay dwarfed by inflation over the past decade due to an extended fight with the city.
The two sides butted heads under the leadership of two divisive figures: former City Manager Sheryl Sculley and former SAPFFA President Christopher Steele.
With the city and union both under new leadership at the start of the negotiations, things went relatively smoothly over six months’ worth of meetings.
Deputy City Manager Maria Villagomez, who served as the city’s lead negotiator, thanked the union in her remarks to council members.
“We wouldn’t be here today without the collaboration and the willingness to negotiate a contract from the Firefighters Association,” Villagomez said.
The thorniest part of negotiations actually came from the city side, when a contingent of council members demanded a discussion on the suitability of the city attorney after they said he blocked requests for closed-door discussion of the negotiations, which had temporarily stalled.
City Attorney Andy Segovia responded by all-but-claiming council members were leaking information to the union from the confidential “executive sessions.”
The fight eventually fizzled out, and Segovia refused to elaborate on what prompted his claims.
Here’s a quick breakdown of the city and union’s recent tumultuous history and the new contract.
- The last time the city and union successfully negotiated a deal was in 2009 for a contract that ran from Oct. 1, 2009 through Sep. 30, 2014.
- Between 2014 and 2020, the two sides engaged in an extended fight over healthcare costs and a controversial “evergreen” clause that allowed the terms of a contract to stay in place up to 10 years after its effective end date. It also meant firefighters did not receive a raise for more than five years.
- The fight included a city lawsuit over the evergreen clause, and a fire union-led campaign in November 2018 to change the city charter, which included giving the union the sole power to call for arbitration.
- The union used its new power to call for arbitration in July 2019, which resulted in a panel of three arbitrators forcing a deal on both sides in February 2020. However, the contract gave firefighters less than they had hoped.
- Current SAPFFA President Joe Jones took the helm of the union in 2022.
- Since October 2013, firefighter base pay has grown 10.4%, while inflation has risen 34.8%. So while the $52,164 base pay the lowest-ranking firefighter received in October 2013 would now be worth about $70,312, their actual base pay is just $57,576.
- The city and union started miles apart, with the city
- The tentative deal includes annual pay raises of 7%, 8%, and 5%. The compounding effect adds up to 21.3%. A plan to roll $2,400 of incentive pay and allowances firefighters already receive into their base pay will make the impact of those raises even larger.
- The $109.6 million contract is $27.7 million more expensive over three years than the city originally accounted for in its budget. To make room, the city plans to cut green initiatives and funding for VIA Metropolitan Transit, make changes to fire overtime, and speed up a fee increase for EMS transports.
The following graph shows five of the 15 base pay scales in the proposed contract. The raise amounts also include the $2,400 shift in incentive and allowance pays.