‘Having a union gives employees a seat at the table’
HAYS COUNTY — To ensure that all voices are heard when decisions are made, some members of the San Marcos Hays County EMS (SMHCEMS) have been working to garner support for forming a union called the Hays County EMS Association.
The group of employees started organizing with the Communications Workers of America earlier this year in an effort to address staff recruitment, turnover and morale.
“We decided to form a union to ensure a more active role in determining our working environment, as well as the ability to take a more active role politically to advance our profession as a whole,” said Zack Phillips, a member of the organizing committee, in a news release.
SMHCEMS serves San Marcos, Kyle, Mountain City and Dripping Springs. Hays County has seen explosive population growth over the past two decades. While the service is the main EMS provider for most of the county’s residents, Tom Maia said it is one of the only first responder organizations in the county to not have its own collective bargaining agreement.
“It‘s no surprise then that medics and EMTs both here and across Texas are struggling to balance increasing job demands with pay and benefits that unfortunately have not kept pace,” said Maia, who is an organizing member of the Hays County EMS Organization. “For these reasons and many others, the vast majority of my coworkers at SMHCEMS have put their names down in favor of forming a union. We look forward to working in solidarity with the leadership, the board of directors and Hays County citizens to improve both employee well-being and patient care at SMHCEMS.”
On Monday, March 27, the SMHCEMS Board of Directors voted to allow Chief David Smith to seek further legal counsel to advise them on moving forward with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) election. The board could have chosen to voluntarily recognize the union, which would have led to contract negotiations, but decided no to and the NLRB will proctor an election as required by the National Labor Relations Act.
“The union is absolutely still happening,” Maia said. “It was a matter of whether or not our board of directors chose to voluntarily recognize us. A union effort can exist regardless of whether higher-ups choose to recognize that union.”
As of March 28, 70 out of 85 field staff put their names down in favor of the union.
Maia said that ultimately, they just want a seat at the table.
“We want to be able to negotiate a contract that benefits all our coworkers. As for the items we choose to negotiate, that isn't up to any individual first responder or union committee leader; that is up to all union members. As soon as our union gets recognized, the committee plans to put out a survey to all union members where they can put forward topics that they want built into a contract,” he said. “For example, several employees want regularly scheduled pay increases because of recent inflation; a number of us want more transparent standards in cases of discipline or termination; many of us have families and are interested in parental leave options. These are all just commonly supported examples. I want to make it clear that decisions about a future contract will be up to the input of our union members as well as closely working together with our board and admin.”
The Hays County EMS Association will continue to push for volunteer recognition and engage with leadership to understand what the concerns are.
“We plan to continue working at this time and will never stop advocating for our peers. We will continue to push for voluntary recognition, as the vast majority of field staff have already declared themselves in support of the union. However, we also prepared for an election under the NLRB; almost everyone who signed our mission statement also filled out a union authorization card,” Maia said. “This will allow all staff to vote in an election filed to the NLRB. At this time, the administration put out an email giving notice of [the] petition for an election as required by federal law. This email explains to employees that they have the right to self-organize and have certain protections from conduct that would otherwise threaten their labor rights. As far as we see it, the chief's move to send out the notice is a sign that our effort is legitimate and valid.”
Follow the Hays County EMS Association on Facebook or on Twitter at www.twitter.com/haysemsassoc for updates.
