The contract was rejected because the city refused to put forward any hiring or promotion processes, and in fact refused to write in ANY minimum standards at all. They wanted a blank check to ignore all civil service laws on hiring and promotions, and create whatever processes they wanted with the right to change those processes at ANY time, even while mid-stream of hiring or promoting processes. The firefighters did not have any issue with the pay proposed.
3 Year firefighters make a generous wage of $58,083 a year.
It used to be that it took awhile for new guys to make that kind of money. But the city pushed better pay for new hires in the department as a selling point for the recuiters. Now they use that againt use to point out we make too much. The city spends about a million dollars recruiting for jobs that people are beating down the doors to get.
The City and the Un-American Spaceman are obsessed with race, sex, and ethnicity. Firefighers just want qualified recuits.
Things are going to get interesting. Lots of municipalities are struggling and the only way many survive is to stand up to the unions.
www.pensiontsunami.com
This site has a ton of interesting articles about the coming crisis. Updated daily.
Although I dislike unions, I find it amusing that the left, the champion of unions, now finds itself in a battle with one.
I always find it amazing how the left vilifies its others who disagree with them. And yet on our side, there are always some who call of restraint.
Kinda says it all right there. The city wants womyn, hispanics, blacks, crips, whatever odds and ends they can identify to be given jobs with the FD; whether they can perform or not.
More white-o-phobia from the tolerant diversity whores of Austin, right?
You are 100% correct there. I don't care what ethnic group a fireman belongs to, if he can haul my fat unconscious butt out of a burning building, he's the MAN. The Creator did not build 99.5% of women to be capable of carring heavy loads down ladders. For some political party to decide that a 95lb. petite blonde has the same worthiness as a 250lb. ex-linebacker is foolhardy at best.
A Fireman is the hero of last resort. When fire sprinklers fail, when flame-retardant materials fail, when common sense fails (as in sleeping with a cigarette in bed) - the Fireman is all that stands between certain death and life. This 'hero' has to be able to get heavy equipment where it's needed, he needs to get his team in, and out of a hazardous envirornment with ZERO fatalities, and if possible, rescue as many victims as they can. You can not do that with a team of aging cheerleaders - cute dresses or not.
Bottom line, this is a job for MEN, not boys, not girls and not women. To insist that women are equal to performing the task as a team of men is sheer nonsense. What will end up happening is that the mixed team will have men, forced to do their job, as well as pick up the slack that the women cannot handle. As an added perk, the men get to lived in a sexual harassment charged atmosphere at the station, should any man accidentally 'LOOK' at a woman in a manner she finds offensive. To destroy your career, all that needs happen is for you to be accused of sexual harassment. There is no need for a trial, there is no need for a defence - you will be assumed guilty and must prove your innocence. Even if you manage to prove your innocence, the taint on your record will follow you forever; making you doubly guity if such a charge is ever placed in the department again.
Wow! Look at the code-speak in that sentence!!! Translated: too many white boys.
Perhaps people need to go back to the ways of the first fire company founded in the USA by Ben Franklin.
It seems you're right.
I was reading this piece and my gut reaction was to support the city over the union. But after I got to this line...
Those benefits reflect the high regard Austin residents have for the profession and the desire to recruit and retain a diverse group of qualified men and women to those jobs. Those goals have not been met.
...it sounds like you are right.
The left is so amusing; they have no idea how to react when their numerous interest groups (homosexuals, minorities, unions, entitlement hucksters, environmentalists) oppose each other.
This fight has the diversity cult pitted against organized labor, and it seems that the diversity cult has their favor this time. This will be very indicative of Obama's America. Perhaps more of this will push members of organized labor in our direction.
If I'm a fire fighter inside a burning building, I want absolute confidence that my brother fire fighters will be watching my back and pulling my butt out of there if things go bad. That is non-negotiable. An unqualified fool is likely to screw up in a way that gets people killed.
Sounds like it’s time for he city to give Rural Metro a call.
Ping
...the Austin Firefighters Association is engaging in a kind of political extortion to maintain high pay and perks while preserving an outmoded culture at the fire department. That culture has for decades resisted the kind of change Austin leaders have demanded as a way of integrating the department into the greater Austin community. The department is, and has been, a closed club that does not look like the city or reflect its values.
Those benefits reflect the high regard Austin residents have for the profession and the desire to recruit and retain a diverse group of qualified men and women to those jobs. Those goals have not been met.
In return, the city sought more flexibility in hiring and promotion decisions for incoming Fire Chief Rhoda Mae Kerr.
They initially resisted random drug testing and tried to renege on past agreements that opened the door for more women and minorities to be firefighters. That tactless posture might well have to do with the fact that most firefighters — six out of 10 — don't live in Austin.
The sticking point seems to be that the union wants to maintain a hiring and promotions system that protects the status quo rather than cede more of that authority to the new chief.
I also work with very qualified black guys and right now I work with a great girl that is really good at her job. Its just that shes big enough to do it and loves doing it.
The problem that these Austin firemen are fighting against is the city wants to just plug the vacancies with women and minorities no matter what their qualification.
They dont plug the vacancies with under qualified whites so why minorities? Its crazy!
No one is against minorities just dont put people in positions that they cant adequately do the job.
Austin has become the San Fransisco on the Colorado.
Do they have three eyes, or a big Klingon bump growing out of their forehead?
I have no problem with 3-eyed Klingon firefighters!