Fire union files third grievance

Unsuccessful in its first two challenges to the City of Clinton following its activation in 2014, Firefighters Local 5016 has filed a third grievance.
This one is on a completely different topic from either of the first two – it challenges action taken by the City Council on Nov. 21 authorizing a vacation buyback plan for all city employees including firemen. Under the plan, employees with vacation time coming were given the opportunity to forego their vacations – or a portion of them – and instead be paid for the time at their regular rates.
In a letter to City Manager Mark Skiles dated Dec. 15, Local President Scott Haggard contended Skiles violated the union’s collective bargaining agreement by sending out a text message concerning the buyback program.
“The City and Union are currently in negotiations concerning the 2017-2018 collective bargaining agreement,” Haggard wrote. “This change has not been discussed with the Local Negotiating team nor any member of the bargaining unit executive board. IAFF Local 5016 is still the sole and exclusive bargaining agent for the fulltime permanent paid firefighters employed by the Clinton Fire Department. This is a unilateral change in working conditions and bad faith bargaining on the part of the City. If the City wishes to make proposals to the negotiating team, please submit them to myself (Scott Haggard) or the Local’s representative, Lance Haines.” Haines is a fire fighter at Ada.
Skiles said Monday that to his knowledge, only five members of the department’s fulltime firefighting force belong to the union. However, its actions affect all fulltime firemen.
Haggard asked Skiles to rescind the text message he issued regarding vacation buyback as well as a memo regarding “the new vacation accrual” until an agreement can be reached with the bargaining agent. He also asked that any new proposals concerning wages, hours, benefits, grievance procedures, “and other terms and conditions of employment of the Clinton Fire Department be submitted to the negotiation process.”
Asked where the matter stands at this point, Skiles said the union submitted its grievance regarding vacation buyback to Lt. Brett Russell, currently the department’s interim chief. He said Russell denied it so it then was appealed to him.
Skiles said he denied it “not only because the City Council had authorized it” but also because the union missed a 10-day deadline for grieving it to him once Russell had denied it.
Although they weren’t mentioned in Haggard’s letter, the city manager said there are two more issues in dispute.
“The union wants the City to perform a payroll deduction of union dues,” he said. “The City has taken the stance that payroll deductions are part of union action and therefore should be kept separate. Union dues are a responsibility of the union, not a responsibility of the City.”
Secondly, Skiles said the union has requested that its members be allowed to opt out of the City’s health insurance plan and join a statewide firemen’s health insurance plan. If that happened, he said the City would have to pay insurance premiums not only for firemen but also their spouses and other dependents.
He said other city employees have premiums paid by the City for themselves but not for spouses or any other dependents.
“What the firemen are asking for would cost the City $1,000 per fireman per month,” he said.
He added that it would be “rather difficult for the City to allow a certain group of firemen” to be treated differently from the others. The inference was that the city would be out the additional $1,000 not only for the five union members – if indeed that’s a correct figure – but also for all 12 fulltime fire fighters.
As for what happens now, he said that will be up to the union.
The union’s first grievance was filed in September of 2016 and its second in January of 2017. The first protested a directive from then-chief Forrest Valentine that firemen had to respond to all emergency medical calls, even those to which the city’s ambulance provider – Sinor Emergency Medical Service – was responding. In the second, the union indicated it felt officer vacancies were not being filled in a timely fashion.
After first Valentine and then Skiles rejected the first one, a professional negotiator was called in and a half-day hearing was held. Eventually the negotiator sided with the City. Afterwards, Skiles estimated the City’s share of the negotiator’s fee and expenses at $8,000, and in a letter to the editor published in the Clinton Daily News, Haggard blamed Skiles for resorting to “a costly arbitration hearing” instead of talking with local fire fighters to resolve their differences.
The second grievance apparently simply died. Valentine and Skiles contended there were no firemen eligible for promotion to officer positions, and the union contended there were. However, no arbitration hearing was held.
In this third grievance, with both Interim Chief Russell and Skiles denying it, the manager said Monday, “The ball is in the union’s court. They have filed for interest arbitration.”
He said that involves the matter being heard by a panel of three people – one selected by each side and the third by someone those two representatives name.
No date has been set yet for such a hearing.