Union president takes mayor into burning building & comes out with $45 million
Yesterday (Saturday), IAFF Local 36 president Ed Smith took Washington, DC Mayor Muriel Bowser into a burning building. By the time the union president walked out with the mayor, he had $45 million for DC’s firefighters.
This ended a 14-year-old overtime dispute that should have been resolved long ago. Three previous mayors refused to give in, even after the city lost every legal battle.
While none of the news coverage this weekend I’ve seen explains it, this issue actually goes back to the budget crisis of the 1990s when a federally appointed control board ran DC’s finances. The board was able to overrule collective bargaining agreements and ordered that overtime would only be paid to firefighters after they worked 53 hours in a week and not the agreed upon 42 hours.
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When the control board went out of business in 2001, Local 36 believed the 53 hour order was no longer valid. Arbitrators, a labor board and judges all agreed with Local 36, but the city refused to give in. The city continued to withhold overtime pay up until 53 hours allowing the bill to grow as the battle continued. In 2013, the previous mayor, Vincent Gray, even pushed the idea of trying to get Congress to wipe away this debt. Gray proposed this even though, on everything else, he was a true believer in home rule and DC’s autonomy.
While it would be fun to think that Ed Smith wouldn’t let Mayor Bowser escape the heat and smoke until she finally said yes, the deal was actually hammered out well before the Fire Ops 101 event. Still, it only became official yesterday when a smokey and hot Muriel Bowser signed on the dotted line.
A 14-year dispute concerning overtime pay for D.C. was resolved Saturday after Mayor Muriel Bowser and the D.C. Fire Fighters Association signed an agreement.
The agreement will result in $45 million to be paid to firefighters who worked more than 42 hours per week, dating back to Sept. 23, 2001. The mayor’s office said funds have already been allocated through surplus revenue in fiscal year 2015.
The settlement of the lawsuit will cover more than 3,000 firefighters and was disputed by three previous mayoral administrations.
“I am pleased to announce that the District has resolved the longstanding overtime issue with Local 36, who represents our firefighters and emergency services personnel. Thanks to the hard work of all the parties, we have resolved overtime pay issues for the past, present, and future,” said Bowser. “This settlement helps ensure that the hard-working men and women at DCFEMS are paid for the overtime that they have already worked and earned.”
The majority of the overtime payments are expected to reach affected members by the end of the year. Some will begin to see the back pay as early as Oct. 18.
