By Rich Lord
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
PITTSBURGH — The Pittsburgh firefighters union has offered to renegotiate its contract a year early to help the city escape from distressed status.
The offer, though, comes at a time of rising tensions between the union and the administration over what the firefighters characterize as violations of the current contract. Disagreements over drug testing, accommodations for disabilities and hiring have turned up the heat on the usually simmering relationship between the city and its fire union.
Joe King, president of International Association of Fire Fighters Local 1, said last week that Pittsburgh Public Safety Director Mike Huss and Fire Chief Darryl E. Jones — recruited from Johnstown and Aliquippa, respectively — have ignored parts of the contract, which runs through next year.
“You’re not in Johnstown, you’re not in Aliquippa,” Mr. King said. “You can’t come into my city and do what you want.” Changes have to be negotiated, rather than imposed, he said — and he’s ready to talk turkey.
“We received a letter from him” offering to reopen talks, said Mr. Huss. “We’re considering it, but no decision has been made. ... I’m really not prepared to comment on it.”
Mr. King’s letter, dated Feb. 15, said the union will be “preparing a specific list of demands” in hopes of “early negotiations.”
The offer comes as both sides prepare for an April 8 hearing on the city’s distressed status under Act 47, to be held by the state Department of Community and Economic Development in response to a City Council petition.
The firefighters want the city to get out of distress, in part because plans written under Act 47 limit what they can get in contract arbitrations. Mayor Luke Ravenstahl has said he wants to get out, too, but hasn’t set a timetable.
Some in city government are wary of exiting from oversight before new labor contracts are signed. A contract negotiated and arbitrated under Mayor Tom Murphy’s administration in 2001 led to a U.S. attorney’s office investigation, but no charges, and resulted in the Fire Bureau’s cost rising to $60.4 million in 2004.
This year, as a result of concessions, retirements and reduced overtime, it’s $49.1 million.
Even if the city exits state oversight, Mr. King said that future contracts won’t look like the lucrative pacts of the past, because the city has to “look further in the out years as to whether or not its affordable.”
High on the agenda in any contract rewrite is the question of drug testing, brought to the forefront by a January incident that has firefighters upset.
On Jan. 19, according to a written statement by veteran firefighter William Clifford, police pulled him over while he was driving from his Hazelwood home to pick up his daughter at a friend’s house. The statement says police searched his car and person for drugs, one swore at him, and when they found nothing, they let him go. The statement suggests the police mistook him for someone else.
The next day Chief Jones and a battalion chief showed up at his firehouse and demanded that he take a drug test, which he did. Mr. King said it came up negative.
“It’s our position that we had just cause to do it,” said Mr. Huss.
“Drug testing in the fire service is a very sensitive, personal issue,” Mr. King said, because if someone gets plucked from duty and asked for a urine sample, rumors can start. Contract provisions allow management to demand tests after a vehicle accident or when a firefighter is on “last chance” status after various infractions. Neither applied to Mr. Clifford, said Mr. King.
The union has filed a grievance protesting Mr. Clifford’s treatment, Mr. King said. He said the union might be willing to give management the right to test any firefighter arrested with drugs.
Does the city want the right to do random drug testing?
“We’ve always tried to work in that direction,” said Mr. Huss, “but it’s obviously a collective bargaining issue.”
Also upsetting the union is the case of Fire Capt. David Cerminara, who has been kept off work since he suffered seizures last March and April. Last week, an arbitrator told the city to return him to work and provide back pay estimated by the union at $35,000. Mr. Huss said the city hasn’t decided whether to appeal.
The city has argued that a firefighter should not work for a year after a seizure, while the union has said that Capt. Cerminara should be brought back. He has filed a federal lawsuit under the Americans With Disabilities Act.
Also affecting relations is a long-awaited study by Virginia-based System Planning Corp.'s TriData division on the Fire and Emergency Medical Services bureaus. A partial draft recommends that the city reduce its backlog of abandoned buildings, improve fire prevention, then consider cutting the number of fire stations from 29 to 23.
The state-picked Intergovernmental Cooperation Authority, which approves city budgets, commissioned the study. ICA Executive Director Henry Sciortino said he hopes to have a draft “road map” to improve public safety by month’s end, and will then begin reviewing it with involved parties.
Mr. King wants Mr. Huss to pledge not to close stations.
Mr. King said relations between the rank and file and administration are more contentious than usual, pointing to a series of struggles in the last three years over polygraph testing of candidates, pay for trainees and seniority for new hires whose entry into training was erroneously delayed.
Some of those disputes have gone to the courts when, according to Mr. King, they might have been resolved amicably.
"[That’s] costing the city a ... lot of unnecessary money,” he said.