Really? City & firefighters union battle over who uses garage door opener
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I only hope we are missing some vital piece of information that explains why there is legal action going on between the City of Lockport, New York and the Lockport Professional Firefighters Association over who opens the bay doors to the firehouse. The articles tell us the city installed remote control openers in each of the fire trucks in December resulting in a grievance being filed.
The issue seems to be that the order for firefighters to handle the opening of the doors goes against the police union’s contract. Police oversee dispatching for the fire department.
When you think of the unbelievably serious issues and important work union locals have in front of it in places like Detroit and around the country, you have to wonder what this is really about and how bad the relationship must be for it to come to this.
Joe Olenick, Lockport Union-Sun & Journal:
The city said in its court filing, the fire department — namely Chief Thomas J. Passuite with “participation” from the union — put together a new “standard operating procedure” concerning the opening and closing of the overhead garage door. But in its grievance, the firefighter union said that new procedure violated an agreement the department made with police in May 2010.
That’s when police took over communication and dispatch duties for the fire department. And according to that agreement, city police also started handling the operation of the overhead doors with a remote control device from the police headquarters and communications center, located at City Hall, One Locks Plaza. The agreement says LFD has to notify police dispatch when they need the doors open, otherwise the doors remain closed.
“It has to do with breaking the contract,” (union President Kevin W.) Pratt said. He said the union objects to taking work away from the police. “It’s their work, and we don’t think it comes back to us,” he said.
He said the rules on door opener use and disciplinary provisions improperly supplement the union’s agreement with the city dating back to the transfer of dispatch work to the police.
McCaffrey’s document said, “Essentially, Local 963 is objecting to the option, provided for and installed at city expense, of using one of the fingers of a firefighter to press down on a button located on the remote control device within the cab of every fire apparatus in order to open the overhead doors of the Fire Department, all for the convenience of firefighters.”
