Sanford Nowlin
During the last round of negotiations, then firefighters union president, Chris Steele (pictured above), launched a scorched earth campaign against the mayor andcity manager.
The current contract, agreed upon in 2020 following a scorched earth approach from the union, expires at the end of this year. Even so, officials involved in the matter told the daily news that this round of negotiators will hopefully be more civil.
"We're all kind of testing new waters here because the past so was contentious — downright acrimonious," President of the San Antonio Professional Firefighters Association Joe Jones told the daily this week.
The "acrimonious" actions Jones is referencing are the union's guerilla-like warfare launched against City Hall, the mayor, and city manager during the last negotiations.
For folks that may have forgotten, then San Antonio Firefighters Union President Chris Steele launched a successful city-wide campaign to amend the city charter in 2018 to cap the city managers' pay and time in office.
Steele's tactics were in response to the City Manager Sheryl Sculley's stalling of negotiations.
The Firefighters Union was also involved in a plot to replace the newly elected Mayor Ron Nirenberg and replace him with union ally, then District 6 Councilman Greg Brockhouse – although that coup was unsuccessful.
However, both Steele and Scully are long gone, and city and union leaders are looking forward to a more polite dialogue this time around.
Nirenberg said during a city budget work session earlier this month that he hopes a new contract can be hashed out "before we get to the meat of our budget adoption for 2025," according to the Express-News.
Meanwhile, Jones, who replaced Steele in 2021, told the daily he remains "cautiously optimistic."
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