AUSTIN, Texas — After years of negotiations, the City of Austin and the EMS union have come to an agreement on a contract. Now, union and council members alike must approve the contract for it to take effect.
Multiple years of bargaining have now resulted in a four-year deal for medics across Austin.
"When we started negotiating the contract, we really did not think that the City recognized how bad the problem was," said Selena Xie, president of the Austin EMS Association.
The union is working to get medics in Austin higher pay and to address recruitment and retention. Xie said they are seeing high call volumes with an already short staff and she hopes this deal will help fix some of those problems.
"Normally, our busiest day of the year is Jan. 1, New Year's Eve. And one of these days, I think last Friday, we actually matched how many calls we ran on New Year's Eve," Xie said.
The agreement between the City and the EMS union is only tentative for now. In September, council members will meet at City Hall to give it official approval – something that is expected to happen but recently didn't, with the police union contract earlier this year.
The agreement includes a 4% raise for all current employees and a base rate of over $24 for entry-level medics. To help with retention, the most tenured employees will see upwards of 14.5% in raises in Year 1.
"I think this contract demonstrates collective bargaining at its best, when collective bargaining works. Well, we're solving problems that management has and that our employees have," Austin City Councilmember Alison Alter (District 10) said.
Alter said by coming to a four-year deal, it is expected to increase the feeling of stability for these first responders.
"We saw during COVID how indispensable they are. But day in and day out, they show up and they keep our community healthy and safe," Alter said.
She hopes this will set a precedent to get contracts on the table for both police and firefighters alike.
"It's unsettling when you have all three uncertain, so settling one in a way that management and the union are happy sets a tone for the other ones absolutely," Alter said.