The Texarkana, Texas City Council voted unanimously Monday to put a pay raise for the city’s firefighters on the November 3, 2020 election ballot.
According to Texarkana Texas Firefighters Association President Scott Robertson, Texarkana, Texas firefighters are among the lowest-paid in East Texas.
Robertson said about 90 percent of the firefighters at TTFD are union members. In this case, the union’s job is to compare pay wages to other departments to make sure there’s equality in compensation.
“To be competitive, so we’re not losing our guys, we don’t have any turnovers. We have lost guys to Longview and to Red River Army Depot because they make more. You know, the guys stay here and they can’t afford anything. They got young families and they take off for better pay,” said Robertson.
Robertson said the firefighters have been given only two pay raises in the last nine years.