San Antonio City Council unanimously approved a labor contract with the San Antonio Professional Firefighters Association on Thursday that will give firefighters and paramedics 20% in raises over the next three fiscal years.
Councilwoman Marina Alderete Gavito (D7), whose brother Joe Alderete III is a firefighter and works for the firefighters’ union, abstained from the vote to avoid the appearance of bias.
Earlier this week, the firefighters’ union membership approved the collective bargaining agreement with 97% of votes to ratify.
“Today, we’re turning the page on labor relations in our community, delivering a contract for our firefighters that honors their service and duly recognizes their commitment to the safety of our community,” Mayor Ron Nirenberg said.
The deal gives firefighters and paramedics across the board 20% in raises — a 7% raise in fiscal year 2025, followed by another 8% in 2026 and 5% in 2027. The current incentive and uniform pay, $2,400, will also shift over to base pay — further bolstering wage increases.
The lowest-paid firefighter will see an increase from $57,576 to $72,774 in base pay over three years. The highest ranking will see an increase from $106,872 to $132,588.
The agreement is effective Oct. 1, the start of the city’s fiscal year, and expires Oct. 1, 2027.
“The total compensation increases keeps our firefighters among the best paid in Texas,” said María Villagómez, deputy city manager and lead negotiator for the city. “It also provides more accountability and the city sick leave process, it offers a more robust parental leave benefit to our firefighters and paramedics, and it also paves the way for discussions regarding a more efficient and modern applicant processing and also enhancing our promotion processes.”
The fire union had attempted to get marijuana removed from random drug tests, but ultimately dropped that issue to prioritize pay increases.
The current collective bargaining agreement was crafted by a panel of arbitrators in 2020 after a bitter, years-long battle during which annual base pay increases were stalled.
“The formal negotiations process appeared brief to many, however, for our firefighters and paramedics it has been a long and painful decade of paycuts,” fire union President Joe Jones said in a statement. “Our new contract will provide stability over the next few years as we continue to work with city leadership in the restoration of San Antonio firefighters and paramedics wages to a competitive level within the state.”
City Manager Erik Walsh praised the negotiating teams for a speedy process.
“It took us about six months to negotiate [this new] contract, which is probably the fastest that the city and the fire association have negotiated the contract,” Walsh said. “So I think we’ve set a new standard.”
Negotiations, which started in February, were headed toward turmoil in May when several city council members called for more “transparency” around the then-stalled contract negotiations. The full council was given a status update one week later with little fanfare and talks restarted at the bargaining table.
Ultimately, a tentative contract was hammered out by city and union officials in a marathon, 14-hour bargaining session on Aug. 23.
The contract will cost $109.6 million. The city had previously been budgeting for a nearly $82 million contract and made several adjustments — program cuts and revenue increases — to compensate. For instance, Council agreed to cut some future green initiatives, contributions to VIA Metropolitan Transit and increase ambulance fees.
Just before its vote on the firefighters’ contract, Council voted unanimously to approve the nearly $4 billion fiscal year 2025 budget.
