Head of Providence Firefighters speaks out about city’s allegations
By: Rebecca Turco
Email: rturco@abc6.com
PROVIDENCE – The heat is on in the on-going legal battle between Providence firefighters and the mayor over scheduling changes.
Judge Jeffrey Lanphear told both sides to decide by the end of the day Tuesday whether they want to go to trial.
After keeping quiet last week, Paul Doughty, head of the Providence Firefighters’ Union, spoke with ABC6 News about how the city said the firefighters’ contract is “void and unenforceable” in a court document filed Thursday evening (click here). Doughty called that move “a colossal mistake.”
Mayor Jorge Elorza had decided in May to reduce the platoon shifts from four to three, in an effort to save at least $5 million starting fiscal year 2017. The new schedule, which went into effect Sunday, requires firefighters to work an average 14 hours more each week (56 hours total).
This means firefighters would make less each paycheck, even with the city's eight percent raise, according to Doughty. Firefighters go from making $1,800 for working 56 hours with overtime, to making $1,300 for the same work week. “He's changing the terms and really using some misleading, fuzzy math to make his point,” Doughty said.
Doughty is also concerned about the toll the longer hours will take on his crews. “You can’t say you’re going to be more rested after working 56 hours than you would have been if you worked 42,” he countered.
The city is saying the long-term contract goes against the Firefighters Arbitration Act, which states contracts cannot go over three years. But Doughty said the current contract, which was renegotiated in 2013 and covers through June 2017, is technically two separate contracts – one covering three years, and the other covering one year. He feels that covers the union legally.
Meanwhile, the arbitration question is still in limbo, and Doughty feels the city has more to lose than gain. He told ABC6 news if he wins the scheduling battle, the city will owe firefighters $12 million.
If the union isn’t allowed further contract negotiations, he already has another plan. He filed a motion Monday to vacate the city’s pension settlement, which was a part of the union’s contract negotiations from Mayor Angel Taveras’ administration. “We never thought there were any issues with the pension reform, but you can't have one without the other,” he explained. “They were conditioned implicitly on each other and if one's invalid, therefore the other is invalid.”
Two parts of the motion would affect the city, according to Doughty: the unfunded pensions and the yearly amount set aside for the pension system.
If the pension settlement were undone, he estimates that would cost the city more than $200,000 (bringing the total unfunded pensions to more than $1 billion) and an increase of $25 million dollars in money set aside for the pension system.
The mayor’s office would not speculate on costs incurred if the union wins in court.
© WLNE-TV 2015
