Moore: Elorza, Firefighters Must Reach Settlement on Platoon Shift
Monday, November 09, 2015
In the end, the dispute between the Providence firefighters and the City of Providence should end in the much the same way that the state and the public sector workers ended - with a settlement. It makes sense for all parties involved.
Over the last ten years I've spent covering news in Rhode Island, I've developed a joke about lawyers. Ask them a question, and you'll inevitably get the same answer regardless of what you ask. "I don't know." But Providence needs an answer.
Platoon Change
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTIt is interesting that the Providence Firefighters Union Local 799 seems so assured that they will prevail in court, and that Providence, led by Mayor Jorge Elorza, will be forced to pay millions in back wages to the union. The dispute has arisen over the platoon shift change that's forced firefighters to work a 56 hour shift as opposed to the previous 42. Although they're being forced to work more hours, they're only being paid 8 percent extra for those hours.
Elorza implemented the plan following a North Kingstown Supreme Court victory that ruled the town had the management rights to unilaterally change the number of platoon shifts from four to three. Providence soon followed suit.
If history has taught us anything, it's that the court system is nothing if not unpredictable. I'm still irked by the so-called Bill Irons decision from several years ago, which vacated the power of the Rhode Island Ethics Commission to investigate and charge the state legislature with ethics violations.
Financial Woes
Let's face it: I don't think anyone believes that Elorza has implemented this cost cutting measure on the fire department because he wanted to. If anything, the mayor strikes me as someone who is naturally conflict-avoident. Why would the first-year mayor want to pick a fight with the firefighters?
Providence's finances, however, dictate that he has to look for ways to bring down costs. Taxes are already sky high. Homeowners are taxed up to their eyeballs, and the commercial tax is one of the highest in the nation.
In any event, Paul Doughty, the President of the firefighters union, has told numerous Rhode Island media outlets that he is very confident in the unions legal standing in the case.
Shortly after the firefighters union scored a preliminary victory in court earlier in September, when Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Lanphear ruled that the two sides could go to arbitration, Doughty all but spiked the football.
Pyrrhic Victory?
"The only people who would be surprised by the Judge's decision today would be the city and the second-rate labor lawyer they're using," said Doughty at the time.
Maybe doughty is right. Perhaps the city will lose this case, and then the court will order the city to pay the firefighters somewhere between 12 and 20 million dollars.
But in the end, that will likely just end up a Pyrrhic victory--the firefighters could find themselves in a classic 'win the battle, lose the war' scenario.
Yet costs, especially liabilities, continue to escalate. The pension system is woefully underfunded, but the city's health care costs are even worse, with liabilities over $1 billion. Bankruptcy is a very real fear.
If the city loses in court against the firefighters, it's just one more step down the road towards bankruptcy. And in that case, everybody loses.
At that point, the firefighters will be looking at far more severe cuts than Elorza has implemented up until this point.
In an interview with GoLocal earlier last week, new Police union president Robert Boehm made an astute point when asked about the next police union contract.
Let's Have Cooler Heads Prevail
"[Police] are concerned about the city’s finances. The [new] contract’s not going to mean anything if the city goes bust," said Boehm.
That's a point the firefighters should consider long and hard.
None of this is to say that Elorza has handled this situation perfectly either. The mayor needs to do more to cut costs across all the other departments of city government as well. Right now, it looks like Elorza is picking on the firefighters.
In the end, the best solution for both sides, is to come to an agreement that saves the city money, but also allows shows consideration to the firefighters. In the end, everyone in the city - employees, taxpayers, non-profits - are all in this together. We all need to see Providence succeed.
Like the old saying, often repeated by RINPR's Scott MacKay, goes, "A bad settlement is better than a good trial".
Russell Moore has worked on both sides of the desk in Rhode Island media both for newspapers and on political campaigns. He can be reached at [email protected]; follow him on twitter @russmoore713.
Related Slideshow: Providence Firefighter Tweets
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