By Tom Kertscher
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
WEST ALLIS, Wis. — Think it’s tough to smoke where you work? Imagine if you worked 24-hour shifts and couldn’t smoke indoors or outdoors.
Since July 5, smoking firefighters of the West Allis Fire Department have been working under that double-ban. On Friday, they’ll ask a judge for an order allowing them to smoke outside of the city’s three fire stations.
“It’s the principle of the thing,” 27-year firefighter and cigar smoker Chris Levenhagen said Tuesday. “You’ve got a right to smoke.” Levenhagen is among about 10 smoking firefighters who had been allowed to smoke in designated areas inside of fire stations.
(Firefighters hired after Jan. 1, 1996, can’t smoke at all, on duty or off.) In May — with the statewide smoking ban set to go into effect July 5 — the city Police and Fire Commission approved a policy prohibiting anyone, including employees, from smoking anywhere on Fire Department property.
The firefighters union objected and, after negotiations with Fire Chief Steven Hook, a proposal was submitted to the Police and Fire Commission to allow firefighters to smoke in designated areas outside of fire stations.
But the commission rejected that proposal, leaving the complete ban in place.
The firefighters union went to court July 7, asking Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Timothy Dugan to order the city to — temporarily — enforce the compromise proposal. He is expected to issue a ruling Friday.
The ruling would be in effect until a permanent decision is made on a complaint the union filed with the Wisconsin Employment Relations Commission over the policy that prohibits firefighters from smoking anywhere on Fire Department property.
That restriction is more severe than at other city buildings, such as City Hall, where smoking is allowed outside the building in designated areas.
Assistant City Attorney Sheryl Kuhary points out in her legal papers that under state law, if a firefighter becomes disabled because of a heart or respiratory impairment or disease, it is presumed that the impairment or disease was caused by their employment, and therefore puts taxpayers “at a greater liability for firefighters who are awarded duty disability benefits because of the presumption.” The firefighters union argues that the no-smoking policy is something that must be negotiated between the union and the city, not simply imposed by the Fire and Police Commission.
None of the commission members could be reached for comment.
Until the matter is resolved, Levenhagen said, he’ll cope by smoking one cigar on the way to work and another on the way home.
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