Brother and Sister Firefighters,

 

Just a short note before I go to work...

Yesterday 300 fellow Brother and Sister Austin Firefighters made a stand at city hall. They stood on the principle that a hiring process that selects future firefighters needs to be meritorious as well as be fair and inclusive to all.

Many Brother and Sister Austin firefighters stood before council and offered a litany reasons why the council should vote no on the consent decree.

Unfortunately, at the end of the night the feckless city council was frightened by the city attorneys "chicken little the sky is falling speech" and council voted to move the consentl decree forward. This outcome was not unexpected and we have planned for this.

A couple positive notes before I continue; Mike Martinez and Chris Riley were the only two councilmembers that stood for us and voted NO. They did a great job of trying to convince other council members that a yes vote was the wrong way to go. Big thanks to both of them for all they do for Austin firefighters and our issues. Also, many prospective 10-1 candidates running for council stood in support of Austin Firefighters last night. Many of them stood before council and voiced their opposition of the consent decree. Many of these courageous communities' leaders WILL be our future council members.  

So what happens now? Given that the city has rejected our reasonable proposal and voted to approve a consent decree they have force our hand. Now we will become interveners at the federal court level and stop this debacle. At federal court we have a big advantage, politics do not matter (much) and facts and evidence usually prevail.  This is a much better environment for us to operate within and we now look forward to the challenge.

I could not have been prouder of our fellow firefighters than I was yesterday. 300 strong standing in unity. I thank each and every one of you for the great job you do each day and for your principled stand you made last night!

More updates soon...

 

Bob Nicks

President, Austin Firefighters Association

 

 

 

 

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Mike Martinez will be on KLBJ AM Radio, 590am, talking about consent decree! Tune in to hear.

I just finished my radio interview minutes ago.


Bob

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Open link and scroll down to see DOJ consent decree, AFA council breifing doc and AFA proposed hiring solution.

 

05/08/2014 - More Info RE: 5/15 Consent Decree Vote

 

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Posted 5-6-2014

 

Brother and Sister Firefighters,

I have recieved many emails requesting a link to the consent decree. The AFA legal team is working on a summary to send to the membership upon it's completion.

Until the summary is avialable, a full copy of the consent decree can be found at:  AFD Consent Decree

A more detailed membership update will be released later today.

Bob Nicks

President, AUstin Firefighters Association 

 

 

 

 

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Discussion Board has been set up for the following Motion, please post your questions/comments there.

Board Motion (13-29) (Motion by R. Denzer, Second by VP D. Galvan)

Motion to file lawsuit against COA forCivil Service Violations of non-civil service firefighters supervising civil service firefighters andsubcontracting through use of Auto Aid

 

Link to Discussion Page: http://iafflocal975.org/forums/one/viewmessages.cfm?Forum=284&Topic=291 

 

AFA Members - Please click on the below link to view the AFA auto aid educational materials. The motion will go to on-line vote 2/18/2014 - 2/20/2014. Please take the time to review and discuss this very important issue with other AFA members. If you have any questions please contact your VP.

http://www.iafflocal975.org/index.cfm?Section=10&PageNum=275

Click here to be taken to the Vote  (Remember vote begings at 0800 onTuesday Feb 18th)

 

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Brother and Sister Firefighters,

 

Just a quick note to direct you to some recent national and local news stories on the DOJ consent decree debacle.

 

Here is a link to the "news room" of the new AFA web site designed to get our message out to the media and public. At this link the lastest 3 articles I have not sent out to the membership yet and our very favorable.

http://www.austinsafetyfirst.org/news/

 

Also, please do not forget about the upcoming vote on the auto aid lawsuit. I would recommend that, if time allows, watch the videos at the station as a group and discuss. The vote will be the 3rd week in Febuary.

 

AFA Members - Please click on the link below to view the AFA auto aid educational materials. The auto aid issue will be debated at the next membership meeting on 2/11/2014 and then the motion will go to on-line vote 2/18/2014 - 2/20/2014. Please take the time to review and discuss this very important issue with other AFA members. If you have any questions please contact your VP.

 

http://www.iafflocal975.org/index.cfm?Section=10&PageNum=275

 

 

 

 

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July 12, 2014

Charity Boxing Championship

Benefiting: Partnership for Children &

The Down Syndrome Association of Central Texas

Firefighters 

vs.

Law Enforcement

Boxer Application Deadline Jan 03,2014

For Full Details click here.

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Brother and Sister Firefighters,

The content of the Department of Justice and EEOC letters suggests further proof that the city is purposely not defending the cadet hiring process to manipulate the Department of Justice. DOJ Letter

 

The city appears to be doing exact as the city’s chief negotiator from past negotiations told us they would do; wait for somebody to file a claim and then provide a weak defense so the DOJ would place the cadet hiring process under a consent decree. By the city not providing the necessary information to defend the claim of discrimination the Department of Justice is reaching the only conclusion they can; the city is guilty of racial discrimination. Not because they really are guilty and not from of contractual constrains but because the city is “pretending” they are guilty by not properly defending the process. This tactic by the city manager’s office will end up costing the citizens of Austin many millions of dollars as well as harm the fire department by lowering the quality and moral of the incoming classes.

Of course, the Austin Firefighters Association (AFA) cannot know this for certain because the city has withheld any and all information from AFA that would let us substantiate of our claims. What we do know is that the city spends close to 1.4 million dollars a year to recruit and hire fire cadets. The hiring vendors that the city contracted with are qualified professionals, preformed a robust local job analysis and validation study, and did everything in their power to reduce adverse impact and lower their legal liability. In other words the city spent a large sum of money to insure they have the means to defend a title VII claim of discrimination and then it appears that the city is purposely not defending it. The Austin Firefighters Association looks forward to working with the Department of Justice on this matter. Eventually the truth will come out.    

Your AFA Eboard has anticipated all that has unfolded and are prepared to respond. Your Eboard will be meeting Monday to discuss both the letter to stop certain workplace benefits after the CBA expires as well as the recent DOJ/EEOC actions.

 

More information will be sent to the membership after the Monday Eboard meeting. I would imagine there will be several membership educational videos and online votes in the near future in order for the membership to help set our direction.   

 

Bob Nicks

President, Austin Firefighters Association

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"Member Only" Bargaining Team Updates Page

So members can better follow along, AFA is video recording all bargaining sessions and posting the video in the "members only" section. click on link above to access

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Click on grey question mark and follow simple instructions to get your forgotten username and password sent to you within 3 minutes (times many vary).

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Past Membership Correspondence from President Nicks   Click here to subscribe to the Local 975 email list

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