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Firefighters’ contract rejected, missing domestic-violence provision

Council members said the language was too watered down; union OK with returning to old, stronger provision

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CLEVELAND —The Cleveland City Council voted Monday to reject a ratified collective bargaining agreement because it didn’t contain a provision that called for immediate termination of any firefighter convicted of domestic violence.

Cleveland.com reported that Mayor Frank Jackson’s administrators had asked council to pass legislation rejecting the contract, even though the city’s bargaining team had initially supported changing the language that has been in the contract for more than a decade.

Only one councilman voted against the legislation, arguing the contract was negotiated in good faith and that it was unfair to ask council to become involved with the collective bargaining process, according to the report.

Assistant Safety Director Edward Eckart told members of the council that the union had requested that the provision be eliminated, according to the report.

He said members of the city’s negotiating team agreed to it, because they initially felt that the contract contained other policies that gave administration the power to suspend, demote or fire an employee for committing domestic violence.

However, in the two weeks since the union voted to ratify the contract, the administration had a chance to “work through the details of the overall agreement” and decided the language was too watered down on domestic violence, according to the report.

Union President Frank Szabo said the union had no problem with the provision. He said the administration struck the clause in one of its counterproposals in August, arguing that losing the no-tolerance policy brings the contract in line with other collective bargaining agreements that don’t address domestic violence, according to the report.

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