Collective bargaining negotiations between city, firefighters deadlocked

Voters in El Paso could be asked to decide whether local firefighters get a pay raise.

The city and the firefighter’s union have not been able to reach a new collective bargaining agreement since negotiations began in May 2014.

Negotiations have reached a standstill on three issues: the pay raise amount, health care costs, and drug tests.

The city is offering a 1.25 percent pay increase. The Union is asking for three percent. The current starting salary for a firefighter in El Paso is $36,000 a year.

“(Taxpayers) obviously have no bargaining power and they pay higher premiums,” City Representative Emma Acosta said. “The police department is more or less in line with that. They’re a little bit lower and so we’re asking the fire fighters to accept what the police department accepted in its contract.”

By far the most contentious disagreement is over how much firefighters should pay for health insurance. Under a basic insurance plan, a firefighter currently pays about $23 dollars every two weeks.

The city’s plan would nearly double the bi-weekly cost to $44 in 2015, then increase it $54 in 2016.

Firefighters have said most of them pay for a buy-up health insurance plan. Under that plan, a firefighter with two or more family members currently pays $121.55 on a bi-weekly basis. The City is proposing a 65% increase to $290.15 (bi-weekly) by 2015 and $546.83 by 2018.

The firefighters union proposal for the same plan calls for a 22% increase to $148.29 in 2016 and $220.72 by 2018.

“We did our homework, we studied other cities, the starting salaries of firefighters,” Joe Tellez said. He is the president of The El Paso Association of Firefighters.

“What we proposed is a fair offer. The issue is the insurance increase which would end up in a pay cut,” Tellez added.

View a chart showing current deductions and proposals from the City and the Union here.

If the union gets what it is asking for, it could cost El Paso taxpayers an extra $13 million a year, according to city officials.

“We need to come up with a way to reward the firefighters for the job they do,” City Representative Cortney Niland. “At the same time, we have to be very mindful on the impact it has on the taxpayer.”

Also at issue is whether a firefighter should be fired if he or she tests positive for drugs, though Tellez said that’s not a main point of contention for the Union.

Voters could decide these issues during a May 9th election if an agreement isn’t reached before then.