SAN ANTONIO – It was a frustrating day for the San Antonio Professional Firefighters Association and the city of San Antonio after negotiations over health care hit a wall.
The two sides have been back at the negotiating table for about a month now.
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The union wants insurance claims from the past decade, which has caused a stall.
The city has offered a consumer-driven health plan, similar to the one that San Antonio Police Department employees were offered. It would include no premium for a firefighter and their family, and the city would pay $1,500 into a health spending account and offer a preferred provider organization, or PPO, plan.
The union did not present a health care plan because, it said, it is missing data to decide what's best for its members.
“We need to know what it will take to carve out health insurance so that firefighters, with their own health care, with their own trust that they run, and to remove that responsibility from the city,” said Ricky Poole, of the Professional Firefighters Association.”
“They have asked for a lot of info from the city -- 60-plus request for info," said Jeff Londa, the negotiator for the city of San Antonio. "Thousands of pages have been provided. The city has given the union everything they ask for.”
Negotiations will continue on March 26.
Representatives with the union said they expect some sort of contract to be presented by the summer.
But city representatives said the two sides are too far apart right now and said they couldn't
say when an agreement might be reached.