Firefighters in Hurst are getting ready for collective bargaining negotiations with the city, fresh off a special election win granting them the right to do so.
On Nov. 4, Hurst voters approved a proposition allowing the city’s firefighters to collectively bargain through an employees’ association with 70% of the votes in favor of the proposal.
Cody Lammons is president of the Hurst Firefighters Association, which acts as the sole bargaining agent for most members of the city’s fire department.
“We don't know how long it's going to be before we can start the negotiation process,” Lammons said. “We would like to start as early as possible in order to get the negotiations going.”
The association is seeking changes to wages, benefits and working conditions, including the current staffing structure. They want more firefighters and some new equipment, like an additional ambulance.
Hurst City Manager Clay Caruthers said while the city supports its firefighters “100%,” financial constraints could play a limiting role in responding to those requests.
“The budget’s just getting tighter, simply put,” Caruthers said. “We’ve got difficult programmatic and service level choices that we’re going to need to make moving forward.”
In city materials released before the Nov. 4 special election, officials noted that the fire department already receives benefits including life insurance, healthcare and a 48/96 (two days on, four days off) shift schedule. The materials noted that taxes could increase, or other city services could see cuts in response to the outcome of the negotiations.
Caruthers said while he wasn’t surprised to see voters support the measure granting collective bargaining rights, he was surprised that it came during a time when Texans are also thinking about local government tax reform.
Lammons said the association’s goal isn’t to make costly demands.
“We don't want to have an impact on another department, and we certainly don't want to do anything to raise the taxes of our citizens that support us so much,” he said.
Lammons said it was humbling to collect petition signatures from the public, and to watch election results roll in that showed “overwhelming support.”
“I was very surprised and happy to see that we won by the majority that we did,” he said.
Lammons said the association aims to be “as transparent as possible” with the public throughout the negotiation process. Caruthers said members of the public should keep an eye on city council agendas for collective bargaining-related items.
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