UFOA Protests Using Chiefs In EMS Capacity

By GINGER ADAMS OTIS

PETER L. GORMAN: Must bargain change.

The Uniformed Fire Officers' Association has filed an improper practice charge with the Office of Collective Bargaining, claiming that the Fire Department violated its members' rights by assigning them some supervisory tasks normally done by Emergency Medical Service officers.

The charge was filed after city negotiators Dec. 30 refused to discuss giving the union productivity value for taking on additional EMS work in its ongoing contract negotiations, said UFOA President Peter Gorman.

Broached Last Summer

Mr. Gorman said the FDNY showed the UFOA and the Uniformed Firefighters' Association an EMS merger proposal last July.

Since then, he said, he'd asked multiple times for a formal policy from the department that could be presented to all the unions involved so everyone would have a chance to negotiate, change or object to the plan.

"We not saying we are opposed to it, we're not saying we are in favor of it, but anything that substantially changes the job description of our members must be collectively bargained," said Mr. Gorman.

Regarding contract negotiations, Mr. Gorman said "We continue to do good-faith bargaining, and we expect to settle [the contract] in the future."

Labor Commissioner James F. Hanley could not be reached for comment.

The FDNY has in recent weeks met with both the UFOA and the UFA to talk about bringing more ambulance crews into firehouses, something UFA President Stephen Cassidy has adamantly opposed.

The department was to have moved EMS Battalion 49 in Queens into the firehouse for Engine 262 last week, a plan Mr. Gorman said he objected to because no attempt to negotiate the changeover with the unions had been made.

Never Mind

Just before the move was to occur, the FDNY announced Feb. 2 that it had reached an agreement with Mount Sinai Hospital that would allow the Battalion to stay in its old quarters.

Existing firehouses that share space with EMS units - one in Staten Island and one in the Rockaways - have had uneasy relations, and Queens firefighters built a wall to separate themselves from the ambulance crews.

Still, Mr. Gorman said, some of his fire-suppression chiefs elsewhere had been told they were expected to supervise EMS, most notably in Battalion 47.

"We believe that the order for our fire suppression chiefs to supervise EMS is itself a substantial change to our job description," he said. "Right now, that's under the purview of an EMS chief, so if there's going to be a change, it should be negotiated with us, and the EMS chiefs' union."

FDNY spokesman Frank Gribbon refused to comment, saying the department won't discuss ongoing contract negotiations.

Productivity Debate

But one FDNY insider noted that this round of attrition bargaining had Mr. Gorman "with his back against the wall" because he couldn't match the wage gains of other unions without imposing a steep pay stretch on his members. He said that some FDNY chiefs sympathetic to the union's plight had come up with the idea of having fire officers do some of the administrative work of EMS officers, ostensibly so those officers could then spend more time in the field.

"But there just wasn't that much value in it for the city - they've already got EMS officers doing the paperwork and then heading back out on the road," the source said. "A city negotiator would look at that and say, where's the productivity gain in shifting that to fire officers?"

Although the FDNY reportedly hasn't held formal discussions on merging its two bureaus, there's been talk of how to address the thorny issue of collective bargaining, and how to deal with the EMS unions that would probably disappear or be absorbed should a new title of Paramedic/Firefighter be created.

"Integrating the two uniformed forces would be a tremendously complex job," said another source close to the department. "But there are some chiefs who have seen the writing on the wall and think it can't be avoided."