The Providence Journal
PROVIDENCE, R.I. — A pitched battle over municipalities’ power to control costs in the scheduling of fire department personnel sharpened at the State House Tuesday as municipal champions denounced legislation to defuse that power.
Lt. Gov. Daniel J. McKee, a former Cumberland mayor, gathered with 13 mayors and town managers at a news conference to voice opposition to legislation pushed by the firefighters labor union. That legislation effectively would render toothless a Rhode Island Supreme Court decision affirming the power of municipalities to schedule fire department personnel, by making scheduling a subject of collective bargaining.
The Supreme Court ruled in January that the Town of North Kingstown has the management right to make its firefighters work 24-hour shifts in three groups despite opposition by the International Association of Fire Fighters.
Full story: Lt. Gov. McKee, mayors: We want to keep power to schedule firefighters