By Daina Klimanis
The York Dispatch (Pennsylvania)
Copyright 2007 York Newspapers, Inc.
All Rights Reserved
YORK, Pa. — York City’s unfair labor charge against its firefighter union has been dismissed by the secretary of the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board.
The city made the charge after the York Professional Firefighters Association refused to sign a contract approved by the city council in December.
Though the city administration has said the agreement is valid because the union approved contract provisions in a majority vote, union leaders have argued otherwise. There is no valid contract, they have said, because the union voted to take the contract offer off the table before a final document was signed.
The Feb. 7 dismissal notice by labor relations board secretary Patricia Crawford does not address whether the contract the city council passed is a valid one. What Crawford wrote is that the city’s legal counsel failed to demonstrate that the fire union was doing anything that met the standards of an unfair labor practice under the jurisdiction of the board.
The dismissal was “good news” for union members, if not surprising, said union President David Bowman.
“We told (the city) that that’s what would happen,” Bowman said. “And I guess they took their legal advice, and they were wrong.”
The union withdrew its support for the contract after Mayor John Brenner released a proposed 2007 budget that did not increase firefighter levels beyond the current 68 paid positions. Bowman said Brenner had told him verbally that one or two firefighter posi-
tions cut in 2006 would be restored in the 2007 budget, a claim Brenner denies.
Brenner laid off two firefighters in 2006 to balance the budget. Both have since been rehired to fill vacancies, one temporarily taking the place of a co-worker who is fighting with U.S. coalition forces in Iraq.
The city has until Feb. 27 to appeal the dismissal. It is also heading toward a hearing, scheduled for the same day, before a panel of arbiters that is to resolve the contract dispute.
Brenner would not discuss the charges before the labor relations board or a possible appeal, but said the city would go through appropriate avenues to resolve its disagreement with the union.
“We’ll do our best to be open and fair with our employees, and that’s all we can do,” Brenner said.
In the meantime, union members wait for the hearing, Bowman said.
“It’s pretty much one day at time,” Bowman said.