Ohio Locals Stop City Government Attacks on Minimum Staffing

October 6, 2009 – Minimum staffing for Mansfield, OH Local 266 and Marion, OH Local 379 has been restored after separate legal battles with their respective city governments. In both cases, good contract language was a deciding factor.

In Mansfield, it was an all too familiar story. The City administration blamed tough economic times for having to cut corners everywhere, including fire service.

Local 266 offered the City several cost-saving measures -- such as delaying longevity pay and giving up certain holidays – but it did not consider these ideas as adequate.

On June 26, 2009, the City laid off 20 fire fighters, effectively reducing minimum manning from 21 to as low as 13 fire fighters per shift. Total fire suppression positions were reduced from 88 to 68.

“Not only did the staffing reduction put public safety at risk, but the City’s actions were in clear violation of Article 18 of our contract that plainly states we are not to go below 21 per shift and 88 overall,” says Local 266 President Phil Dollish.

The minimum staffing article has been part of successive collective bargaining agreements since 1979. In 1988, the staffing provision was linked to a 0.5 percent safety forces levy that was passed to secure funding for fire and police services.

Soon after the layoffs, Local 266 filed a grievance. Meanwhile, Local 266 also worked to stop the layoffs by court injunction. The judge ruled that the City was indeed in breach of contract, but requested that Local 266 acquire a surety bond of $600,000 – the amount the City claimed it would lose without the layoffs.

But a surety bond would have held the fire fighters responsible for the money. “Even though the judge said we were right, we do not have any collateral for a bond. We had to continue with the grievance process,” says Dollish.

Because of the staff reductions, one fire station was closed and another was subject to intermittent brownouts. “Obviously, there is no way to prove that certain fires could have caused less damage had we been at normal staffing levels,” says Dollish. “But the truth is you can do more with more fire fighters. You can’t do more with less.”

When the grievance finally made its way to arbitration, the arbitrator found that the City was in violation of Article 18 and was ordered to hire back enough fire fighters to comply with the requirement to keep 21 minimum per shift and 88 overall. Additionally, the City was ordered to make the recalled fire fighters whole with wages and benefits.

Meanwhile, the City of Marion, also claiming financial distress, handed down a directive in December 2008 to cut minimum staffing from 13 to 12.

With the reduced staffing, one fire station was left with three fire fighters to answer both fire and medical calls. If a medical call came in, fire fighters took the ambulance, leaving the fire engine unattended and vice versa. Sometimes, because too many fire fighters were on injury and other types of leave, a fire station was temporarily closed.

On behalf of Marion Local 379, President Kevin Lytle filed a grievance based on contract language that called for a minimum total of 65 fire fighters and 13 fire fighters per shift unless changed by city council ordinance.

However, the City had previously changed the minimum for the department to below 65. The City believed that overtime would be cheaper than paying additional fire fighter salaries.

Because local emergencies could not be covered by less than 65, the overtime costs ate up any money that would have been saved by the reduced staffing. It was because of overtime costs that minimum shift staffing was reduced to 12.

Unfortunately, the grievance was not heard before an arbitrator until after the lives of two young children were lost in an apartment fire. Only three fire fighters were available to respond to the call because all others on shift were responding to other calls.

While mutual aid from a neighboring fire department did respond, fire fighters were not able to get the children out before they died.

“We cannot say with certainty that we could have rescued those children had our staffing been at 13, but the chances certainly would have been greater,” says Lytle.

In July 2009, Local 379’s grievance was finally heard before an arbitrator. The arbitrator in the case handed down a ruling favorable to Local 379 based on the past practice article (instead of the minimum staffing clause) in its contract.

The city was ordered to recall and make whole all of the laid-off fire fighters. “We handle more than 6,500 calls per year which is a lot for a small department,” says Lytle. “Needless to say, we are pleased with the ruling.”

Both Local 266 and Local 379 were represented by Ohio Association of Professional Fire Fighters legal counsel Henry Arnett.