AUSTIN, Texas — The City of Austin and Austin EMS Association began their labor agreement negotiations on Tuesday. The EMS Association was the first of the labor unions to begin talks with the City.
“We look forward to working cooperatively with each of the fire, police and EMS associations to reach agreements that benefit both Austin residents and our public safety employees,” said Deven Desai, chief labor relations officer for the City of Austin. “While this will be a challenging time to negotiate from both a fiscal and COVID-19 standpoint, we remain committed to transparency and fairness.”
The Austin Fire Department and the APD are expected to start labor agreement negotiations in the new year. City officials said that this year, in an extra effort toward transparency and to help facilitate social distancing during COVID-19, the public is invited to watch the negotiations live on YouTube. The negotiation session dates will be published on the Labor Relations Office’s webpage.
The City currently has three public safety labor agreements in place, with police, EMS and fire departments. All three are due to end on Sept. 30, 2022, although the police contract includes a six-month provision where the current agreement will remain in effect should the parties fail to negotiate a successor agreement, according to a City press release.
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