By now, everyone knows there are two sides to Tom Menino. The public side is friendly and affable. The behind-closed-doors side is thin-skinned and dictatorial. The Boston Firefighters’ experience has been with the latter.
In July of this year, Mayor Menino temporarily closed down firehouses 27 times in neighborhoods across the city. The Mayor used two trojan horses to publicly justify the firehouse closings. The first was the allegation that firefighters were abusing sick leave and overtime. This was clearly an attempt to try to embarrass Boston Firefighters and leverage the firehouse closings against the union in bargaining. The fact was that less than 3% of the scheduled workforce was sick, which was below city average. When it was discovered that the Fire Department staffing levels were down by 200 members and that there was in fact a manpower shortage, the Mayor shifted his public stance to that of blaming the city’s finances. This too was readily refuted by the Mayor‘s spokeswoman and the Mayor himself:
“the city’s finances remain strong and in excellent standing…”
-Mayor Menino’s spokeswoman, Dot Joyce, Bulletin Newspaper, August 13, 2009
“We have had the highest bond rating of ever in the past.”
-Mayor Menino, WBZ TV Mayoral Debate, September 2, 2009
When Local 718 was notified by a media outlet that the Mayor would implement temporary firehouse closings, President Kelly wrote to Boston Fire Commissioner Roderick Fraser, seeking information on the City’s operational plan for fiscal 2010 and an implementation plan for the temporary closings. President Kelly received no response from Commissioner Fraser. Bottom line – Mayor Menino, without fact-based justification, orchestrated a political ploy that jeopardized the lives of Bostonians. Click here to see President Kelly’s emails to Commissioner Fraser.
In addition, President Kelly wrote to the Administration warning them of the public safety risks such a plan would pose to the citizens of Boston. In a letter of response to President Kelly, Mayor Menino’s Director of Labor Relations, John Dunlap, revealed their strategy to again circumvent collective bargaining with outright threats. He stated that if Local 718 would change the sick leave language in their contract, Mayor Menino would stop bullying them and halt the firehouse closings. The Menino Administration all but admitted in the letter that the Mayor is willing to use the lives of Boston residents as a bargaining chip to further his political agenda. Unbelievable! Click here to read President Kelly’s exchange with the Menino Administration.
Incidentally, Mr. Dunlap’s behavior in these matters is chronic. Instead of doing his job as a negotiator, Mr. Dunlap spends most of his days using public resources to draft letters to the editor and op-eds, researching which City employees aren’t supporting Mayor Menino and trying to find ways to manipulate the collective bargaining process. Is anyone surprised why the Firefighters don’t have a contract with the City yet? Click here to view the latest ethics complaints filed against Mr. Dunlap.
Firefighters Step Up
Firefighters took an oath to protect the citizens of Boston. In the spirit of that commitment, President Kelly and firefighters across the City of Boston volunteered to staff firehouses without pay to keep the residents of this City safe. Mayor Menino’s response: He refused to allow firefighters to volunteer, and actually said he would consider it stealing if firefighters responded to a citizen in need on a fire truck. Bottom line – it was not about the money, it was about dictating to the firefighters.
The facts are that during Mayor Menino’s “brownout period” firefighters in Boston responded to over 7,000 incidents. Residents at this Roslindale complex were not too happy with Mayor Menino’s political gamesmanship. Click link to hear reactions from Roslindale residents.
So if the city had money and excessive absenteeism wasn’t the problem, why would he employ this risky tactic? The answer: Because rather than negotiate in good faith, Mayor Menino and his staff resort to bullying, smears and intimidation.
The Mayor’s brownouts plan had two objectives:
1.) Try to embarrass firefighters enough in the press to force them to submit to his bullying demands and
2.) Test sample which neighborhoods he could politically afford to abandon after the election, when he plans to permanently close firehouses.
Unfortunately for the Mayor, the plan backfired. After a wave of citizen outrage, the brownouts were quietly stopped. The lesson here is simple: rather than bargain in good faith, Mayor Menino will play politics with people’s lives to further his political agenda. That’s not leadership. That’s a dictatorship.
Stay together guy’s