By Juan Montoya
In one fell swoop, the Brownsville Firefighters Association Local 970 and the City of Brownsville have inked a labor contract that does away with the contentious "me-too" clause that if a wage increase was given to the police and it exceeded a wage increase granted to the fire department during the same fiscal year, fire department personnel were entitled to a corresponding wage increase.
In the agreement approved by the City of Brownsville Commission on Sept. 20, that clause was specifically excluded from the contract offered the firefighters.
"The parties hereby eliminate the Me-To clause from the collective bargaining agreement," Article 25 of the contract reads. "There shall be no entitlement to any additional agreement to any wage or other benefit negotiated with or granted to the city's civilian workforce, members of the City's police bargaining unit, or any other city employee."
To sweeten the deal, the contract lasts for five years and calls for a three percent salary increase for non-probationary personnel at the department each of those years.
The Firefighters' Association membership voted to approved the contract with the Me-Too clause – and other important provisions – eliminated from the final draft on Sept. 29.
Another clause eliminated was the rank and wage parity with the police association, the minimal staffing provisions of the old contract.
Veteran and retired firefighters have privately complained that the acceptance of the removal of these protections have gutted the labor gains made by former firefighters and the association in past negotiations with the city.
"In one year, in one election, where many new firefighters who were not there when the struggle was begun, we lost many valuable rights and benefits by the signing of this contract," said a retired firefighter. "It's curious that the new fire chief, who used to be the union president until he was appointed earlier this year, went to court to defend those rights (Me-Too clause) and won. Now he's the chief and the benefits are gone."
The legal battle over the Me-Too clause centered on pay for firefighters from October 2008 to October 2011 and, according to then union president (and now chief) Carlos Elizondo, Brownsville would have to pay out $2.7 million with 5-percent post-judgment interest to applicable firefighters.
The legal battle started with the BFFA’s 2007 collective bargaining agreement and a Brownsville Police Officer’s Association lawsuit against the city because of that agreement.
In the 2008-2009 fiscal year, the BPOA settled with Brownsville, which resulted in the dismissal of a lawsuit the BPOA won in trial court.
“The settlement gave the police officers a bonus and pay increase in exchange for dismissal of the lawsuit and certain concessions in the collective bargaining agreement that was being concurrently negotiated,” the ruling states.
Because of that settlement, the BFFA sued Brownsville citing a “me too” clause from its 2007 collective bargaining agreement with the city, which stipulated that if the wage increase was given to the police and it exceeded a wage increase granted to the fire department during the same fiscal year, fire department personnel were entitled to a corresponding wage increase.
That original BPOA lawsuit against Brownsville was also a “me too” suit and was prompted because the BFFA had previously negotiated a wage increase.
However, Elizondo said when in 2014 when the appeals court ruling was issued that despite the ruling, there continues to be a pay disparity between police and firefighters.
“We’re not where we wanted to be, which was actual parity. We’ve been working on this for about 12 years ever since we merged with EMS, that’s two services,” Elizondo said. “And we did that with hopes of reaching parity and being treated equally.”
All that, however, is water under the bridge with the signing of the contract by both parties and Elizondo now chief.
11 comments:
like the pic two firemen on ground an EMT guy spraying water look at his shoulder patch?
So much for the last 30yrs of hard work I hope you younger fighters in support of this new regime understand that you-all just got fked by your own,wake up dummies!
Name one police officer that takes a nap or gets to cook on his shift.
Because they only work 10 hr shifts with breaks.
Firefighters are crybabies. Just do your job, bofos!
Why would they. They get a paid 45 min lunch hr. and 50% off at most restaurants. What's your point.
Oh some ones mad they could not get hired on at the department.
This is a perfect illustration of the corruption that grips this city and county in a choke hold. Crooked, incompetent administrators surround themselves with crooked, unqualified yes men. Brownsville has a criminal for a city attorney who is only there to protect the illegal activities of those at the top of the food chain. The county has a DA who will not investigate or prosecute crimes committed by elected officials or their admins. Connect the dots, people.
work for 24 hours and 48 hours off, with tons of overtime, the city is going to go broke pretty soon. Stop complaining, you don't know how good you have it.
By the way stop hiding your cruisers behind Finas restaurant between 7&9am you should be helping Bisd students get to school safe and ticketing all the idiot speeders in front of Hanna bofos tax payers are watching you too.
You are right, firefighters Often work double shifts meaning they put in 24 hours of overtime. Millions are paid each year on overtime for fire, police and useless Cyclovias. Taxpayers, get ready for more increase on property tax to off set so much overtime. It is ironically that a lot of police and fire employees don't even live in Brownsville so they don't contribute at all on paying their own salaries. How sad.
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