More Union Lies

This flyer probably came to your house last week.  It states that Civil Service requires cities to give extra time to military reservists.  No they don’t!  USERRA  is the Uniformed Services Employment and Re-Employment Rights Act.  It is federal law that all cities must abide by.  Arlington currently gives 180 hrs for the reservist to accomplish their military duty.  The only thing that Civil Service does is allow for a city to set up a military leave bank.  This allows other firefighters to work a shift and put the time in the reservists account.  Arlington would do this in a heartbeat if the UNION would have brought it up, but they never did.  This is a no cost item that can be implemented instantly.

What Arlington does do for military personnel is pay them extra.  That’s right, we currently go one step beyond civil service.  If a military member of the city is called up to active duty, the city will pay the difference in pay, so there is no financial strain on the family, for serving your country.  Under civil service this will go away because it is not in Part 143 of the Local Government Code.

Another lie on the flyer was, “92% of you firefighters voted to ask you for Civil Service.”  Here is the truth as posted by another firefighter:

Anonymous April 21, 2017 at 1:52 PM

More fun facts- the union keeps saying they had a 92.5% membership approval vote to fight for civil service. The truth, from their own memo breaks it down like this:
328 members
212 voted
196 voted yes
16 voted no
That's only 59% of the members voted yes.
A majority of course.  Sad that so many of them didn't voice an opinion.
Citizens, do you want 196 firefighters upset about lost overtime to ruin an institution that hired and promoted all of them?

What is even worse is that half of 328 members is 164 members.  196 voted YES so the majority is made up of only 32 firefighters.  That is the number that is causing you to consider this option.  I think it’s a sad commentary that 32 high school graduates are the difference in maintaining the best fire department of over 30 major cities in the United States. These 32 firefighters that could have been in high school last year are throwing away the system that hired them.  I agree with the Anonymous firefighter, the Mayor and Council, the Chamber of Commerce, The Star Telegram, the Arlington Board of Realtors, The Young Men of Arlington, former Mayors Greene and Cluck, former Fire Chief Strickland, Fire Chief Crowson and all the Assistant Fire Chiefs.  Vote No on Prop 2.  Don't fall for UNION LIES!