The Board of Collective Bargaining has ruled that the Uniformed Firefighters' Association can proceed with its grievance against the Fire Department over the imple mentation of a policy that reduces staffing on certain engine and ladder companies from five Firefighters to four.
Union leaders said the change forced the FDNY to alter some of its fire response protocols, which it did without notifying them. Policy Untouched At the same time, in a separate but related decision, the BCB ruled that the union can't grieve the actual policy itself.
The UFA hailed the decisions as victories and said it will hold evidentiary hearings and subpoena department leaders to gather information to support its claim, that policies were changed without notification.
Although the UFA can't grieve Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta's four person policy, the BCB said the union could take the issue to court, overruling the city's contention that the UFA hadn't exhausted its ad ministrative remedy.
"The UFA has had to be quite aggressive in standing up for the legal and contractual rights of Firefighters," said UFA President Stephen J. Cassidy. "Our actions and these legal victories for the union are vital to both public and Firefighter safety." Tied to Sick Leave The seemingly contradictory BCB rulings hinged on internal FDNY memos and a prior stipulation agreed to by the department and union that tied absence rates to five-person staffing.
In the first case, the BCB ruled in favor of the union's argument that staffing reductions had caused changes in department policies that weren't first negotiated with the UFA.
The UFA produced a memo dated Dec. 1, 2004 that had been written by Chief of Operations Salvatore J. Cassano and sent to Battalion Chiefs, Deputy Chiefs and other officers. The memo di rected that staffing levels be reduced on certain engine and ladder companies from five to four Firefighters be cause, according to the city, the absence rate had risen above the designated rate of 7.5 percent-to 7.5022 per cent.
The memo also included policies and procedures for deployment of Firefighters when staffing levels in a company went below four Firefighters in a unit during a a tour. Rarely Deployed Before Those new instructions, the union argued, constituted a change in traditional FDNY response protocols. Usual FDNY policy was to deploy a company with fewer than four Firefighters only in extreme circumstances, UFA lawyers said.
The department re sponded that the memo was intended to be a guide for of ficers and didn't constitute a policy change.
But after the memo was written, the union contended, the department routinely deployed units with fewer than four Firefighters, making it a standard operating procedure that violated existing policies. The FDNY didn't conducted research, pilot programs, or training on the new procedures, the union added, and therefore created a safety risk to Fire fighters and the public.
The UFA was also strongly opposed to a statement in the memo that crews of fewer than four Firefighters should take a defensive position when arriving at an emer gency scene. Union lawyers argued that such a policy goes against the nature of Firefighters, who are likely to ignore risk to themselves to save others.
The city, claiming that re duced staffing options for the FDNY were part of an earlier stipulation agreed to by the UFA, argued that the issue was not arbitrable.
But under the city's Collective Bargaining Law, the BCB said, the policy of the city is to "favor and encourage arbitration to resolve grievances. Doubtful issues of arbitrability are resolved in favor of arbitration."
Since the union succeeded in creating a connection be tween the language in the memo and the department's cited policies, the board ruled, it had the right to bring its arguments to an arbitrator. Roster Staffing Beef The second case didn't go as well for the union. The UFA claimed that the FDNY violated a stipulation known as the Roster Staffing Agree ment when it reduced the number of five-Firefighter companies at the start of a tour from 60 to 11.
UFA leaders first signed the stipulation Jan. 30, 1996 as a way to end a lengthy stalemate on staffing numbers.
Under the stipulation, the union agreed to withdraw its scope-of-bargaining petition, and the department agreed to designate 60 engine com panies to be staffed with five Firefighters at the outset of each tour, with the rest of the engine companies staffed with four.
The stipulation also said that if the average rate of ab sent Firefighters during the previous 365 days rose above 7.5 percent at the beginning of a month, the Fire Commis sioner had the discretion to reduce the number of five Firefighter engines from 60 to 11.
Paragraph 11 of the stipu lation contains a provision that said the union waived its right to file any litigation or grievance regarding the Roster Staffing Agreement until Jan. 31, 2006.
Based on that, the city argued, the UFA had no right to grieve the policy. The BCB agreed, and granted the city's request to block further arbitration from the union.
Union lawyer Michael Axelrod said, however, that the BCB's ruling to allow the issue to go to court "worked more in our favor." For the Record Firefighters, Fire De partment officials and union leaders gave a heartfelt welcome to a visiting group of war vet erans who stopped by a Brooklyn firehouse July 7 bearing gifts.
The veterans returned four American flags that had accompanied their units throughout Afghanistan, Iraq and other parts of the Middle East.
The battered and wind torn emblems were ini tially given to them three years ago, when Engine Company 230 and a con tingent of Chicago fire fighters donated 15 flags on behalf of rescuers who died on 9/11 to U.S. troops headed overseas.
Eleven of the flags are still with various military units deployed the Middle East, but four have come full circle and were re turned last week by sol diers wounded in Iraq. They now fly above firehouses in New York and Chicago.
The flags were flown on such ships as the USS Cole and USS Chicago, and also traveled with Marine units that participated in Operation Iraqi Freedom.
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