Unions' Duty at Issue

A class-action suit filed in Manhattan alleges that the Fire Department's Buildings Management Division improperly extended the work hours of at least 28 skilled trades workers without properly compensating them. It also charges that the unions for those employees failed to represent them in protesting those actions.

Those unions could not be reached for comment about the suit and additional allegations made by Brian Colella, a former FDNY Electrician who was fired three years ago while the dispute was heating up. Their reticence is not surprising; they will be sorely embarrassed if the suit is successful.

Six years ago the Director of the FDNY Buildings Maintenance Division told the trades workers, who until then had clocked in at the firehouse nearest their homes by 7:30 a.m. and then called the division to find out where they were working that day, that they had to be at their actual work locations by that time. Accompanying this change was the widespread shifting of employees; Mr. Colella, a Staten Island resident, was consistently sent to firehouses in three other boroughs.

Such changes in job conditions are normally issues for union negotiations, but Mr. Colella's union, Local 3 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, declined to get involved.

During a supervisory conference, Mr. Colella made statements that became the basis for his firing by the Fire Department. He filed a complaint with the Board of Collective Bargaining that his union contract was violated when he was denied representation at the conference.

The BCB ruled against him because there was no such provision in the Local 3 contract. Mr. Colella had not alleged a violation of his Weingarten rights, which require representation of employees called into conferences that could be disciplinary in nature.

When the lawsuit and his other BCB cases are decided, it should be clear whether he was a victim of both an abusive supervisor and a do-nothing union.