Arbitrator Awards Three-Person Minimum Staffing Provision for Woburn Fire Fighters – One of the First Such Awards in Decades.
Well-established national standards demand that fire departments respond to fire scenes with at least three person crews. This protocol enables at least one fire fighter to staff the apparatus, while at least two firefighters can enter the burning structure. These standards, vetted by experts, indicate that firefighters should not enter a burning structure by themselves because they will place themselves at risk. Despite these clear and accepted standards, many communities routinely put their firefighters sand residents at risk by operating two-person fire crews. And many firefighters refuse to stand idly by, while waiting for backup. Woburn Fire Fighters and Attorney Leah Barrault were unable to persuade the City of Woburn to take this concern seriously at the negotiating table. But they were, along with Jay Colbert, able to pursuant an independent arbitrator about the necessity of changing City practice. This is the first time an arbitrator has awarded three-person minimums in a Massachusetts fire department in decades.
The Arbitrator here served as chair of a three-person panel that also included Somerville Fire President and Professional Fire Fighters of Massachusetts Vice President Jay Colbert as the union’s representative and Diane Crimmins as the management’s representative. The panel found that witnesses of both the Union and the City agreed that current staffing in Woburn created serious safety problems. The arbitrator wrote:
"Yet the testimony in this case regarding the health and safety concerns of two-person manning and was overwhelming and essentially unopposed. The Union’s expert witnesses on this topic, [Boston Deputy Fire Chief] Jay Fleming and [Woburn Fire Fighters President and Lt.] Bill Stukey, testified that with the current two-man per piece crews, the first piece of fire equipment arriving at a fire scene and manned with two firefighters does not assure immediate safety entry into a structure. The reason for this is that one firefighter needs to man the ladder or engine, leaving only one to enter the burning structure until more manning and apparatus arrive at the scene. Yet every safety regulation prohibits this. In this situation, the firefighter faces a choice of obeying the regulations and waiting for a second piece of fire apparatus to arrive or ignoring the regulation in an effort to potentially save lives. Fleming explained that this is not a real choice – no firefighter will stand outside a burning building with lives at risk and wait for backup."
The panel granted an increase of per-piece manning. This change goes into effect June 2014. This is the first time that a panel has imposed per-piece manning in decades. That’s probably because most communities have adjusted their staffing in response to previous decisions decades ago. And therefore few communities could justify, from a rational or safety perspective, that crews be kept at two persons. Recent cost-cutting efforts by communities have unfortunately sought to save money at the cost of decreased safety for firefighters and the community.
The Arbitration panel unanimously resolved several other bargaining disputes, in addition to per-piece manning. The panel awarded an increase in vacation for veteran fire fighters, an increase in the employee’s health insurance contribution, a $750 increase in the EMT stipend, and the pattern cost of living increase. The financial awarded by the panel have resulted in a total back pay award of $400,000 to fire fighters and an annual total increase in compensation of about $300,000.
