Fire Fight the Smears

Part I.

The most controversial topic around the current contract negotiations between Boston Firefighters Local 718 and Mayor Menino is the issue of random drug and alcohol testing.  The Mayor has used his office to spin lies about both the City’s and the Boston Firefighters’ positions on drug testing.  This post will separate the Fact from the Fiction, as well as provide a timeline into Mayor Menino’s political calculation and posturing.

Fiction #1 – Boston Firefighters “won’t do drug testing”.

Fact # 1- In 1984, Boston Firefighters Local 718 was one of the first unions in the country to institute a drug and alcohol testing program. The policy is known as reasonable suspicion. Under the policy, if a supervisor suspects a firefighter of being under the influence of drugs or alcohol they are automatically tested. If the test comes back positive, the firefighter is immediately suspended without pay for a period of 30 days and remanded into the Employee Assistance Program. If the firefighter tests positive for a second time in their career, he or she is terminated. This policy became a model throughout the country.  Click here to read the existing policy.

To hear Mayor Menino describe the policy,  go to the 3:26 mark of the video below:

http://www.necn.com/Boston/Politics/2009/08/06/Boston-Mayoral-race-Menino/1249598795.html

Fiction #2- Mayor Menino has advocated for random drug and alcohol testing his entire career.

Fact #2- Mayor Menino brags about having successfully negotiated hundreds of labor contracts within the City of Boston. However, in his capacity as Mayor, he has never negotiated a single random drug and alcohol testing program in the City of Boston.

Fiction #3- Mayor Menino proposed random drug and alcohol testing during the current round of bargaining.

“Many times we’ve had that issue on the table, and [the union's] always said, ‘Uhnh-unh, no way,” – Mayor Menino, Panel to review Fire Dept. policies – Mayor asks them to help alter substance abuse rules, Boston Globe, 11.11.07

Fact #3 – Mayor Menino never proposed any change to the existing drug and alcohol testing policy during the negotiations that took place prior to his walking away from the table and filing for arbitration on July 31 2007. Click here to read Mayor Menino’s August 1, 2007 petition to the Joint Labor Management Committee (JLMC) wherein drug testing is not mentioned in his ‘Statement of Issues in Dispute’.

Further Note:

In June, 2009 Mayor Menino’s Labor Relations Director, John Dunlap, testified under oath that it was not until late September 2007 that he was ordered by his superiors (City Finance chief Lisa Signori and Mayor Menino) to develop a random drug and alcohol testing policy.

This action occurred in the weeks after the tragic fire at Tai Ho Restaurant in West Roxbury, when two Boston Firefighters were killed in the line of duty.  Unbelievably and shamelessly, on October 3, 2007, only days after Dunlap was given the order, high ranking City officials leaked the autopsy reports of the two Boston Firefighters. Less than a week after the autopsy reports were leaked, the City- having never developed one before- miraculously produced a 30- page random drug and alcohol testing policy.

Part II.

Media frenzy ensued.

Despite the political posturing of the Mayor, the disinformation being disseminated by the press and the mounting criticism of a confused public, Local 718 never opposed a random drug and alcohol testing policy.

Cahill- Swift LLC,  whose expertise is the Federal regulations covering drug testing policies for the most highly safety sensitive Federal employees, contacted both Mayor Menino’s office and Local 718 to offer their services as a neutral 3^rd party policy expert . Local 718 representatives met with partners from Cahill-Swift and agreed that their expertise was needed to craft a fair and effective policy. The City did not respond to Cahill- Swift’s correspondence.

Subsequently, Local 718 President Ed Kelly and the late Vice President Bob Kilduff met with Mayor Menino and his Chief of Policy and Planning, Michael Kineavy, to discuss moving forward with a random drug and alcohol testing policy. In that meeting, President Ed Kelly recommended bringing in a neutral 3^rd party to help craft a policy that was fair and effective for both parties and presented Mayor Menino with Cahill-Swift’s contact information. Mr. Kineavy did place a call to Cahill-Swift, but according to the company, did not express any interest in their expertise, nor did the city recommend another neutral 3rd party.

So, rather than retain impartial experts, the city proposed yet another random drug and alcohol testing policy in December 2007, which appeared to be an amalgamation of various policies instituted in other jurisdictions.  Local 718 then retained Cahill- Swift to analyze the city’s proposal and provide recommendations. After thorough analysis, it was revealed that the city’s proposal had dozens of flaws which violated Federal regulations governing drug testing policies. These flaws had the potential cost to the taxpayers of Boston and Local 718 expensive needless litigation. Although under extreme public pressure, Local 718 could not in good conscious agree to the city’s proposal, and refused to give in to Mayor Menino’s bullying tactics.

Part III.

When the Mayor’s political spin that the “firefighters won’t do drug testing” stopped getting traction, he transitioned to “firefighters want to get paid for drug testing”. Many people agree that from a moral and philosophical perspective public safety officials should be subject to a random drug testing, and not compensated for this change in working conditions. These people, ironically, believe Mayor Menino to be the champion of this position. Yet the facts related to the Mayor negotiating compensation in exchange for drug testing are these:

1.)   Between 1999 and 2000 Mayor Menino negotiated a drug testing policy- though not random drug and alcohol testing – with the four police unions in exchange for Quinn Bill benefits (a financial incentive which compensates police officers between 10-25% for attaining college degrees) setting the collective bargaining pattern for public safety unions in the city of Boston.

2.)    In December 2007 (after the firefighters autopsies were leaked, incidentally), Mayor Menino negotiated a wage increase of 11.5% and a retirement benefit worth 10%, totaling a 21.5% benefit package over 5 years with the cities EMTs and Paramedics in exchange for the same drug testing policy as the police unions- still, not random drug and alcohol testing.

Mayor Menino’s bullying tactics may work against a developer seeking building permits or a small business applying for a liquor license, but when it comes to Boston Firefighters, we will not allow ourselves or our families to be treated unfairly!  We die for strangers; we will fight for each other!

As we have pointed out with factual documentation, despite his politically drenched rhetoric, the Mayor and his administration never had any intention of bargaining for a random drug and alcohol testing policy in good faith. Instead, he uses smear and fear tactics to distract the press and public from learning about his mismanagement that jeopardizes public safety.

The truth is that Boston Firefighters support random drug and alcohol testing; we just want a policy that is fair and bargained in good faith. The Mayor does not.  If he did, after 16 years, we would have had one by now. But as with every other issue facing the city, Menino doesn’t lead, he reacts. He manages the city by pandering, intimidation and disinformation. That is not leadership. And it is not what it will take to move Boston forward.

Question to the Press and the Public: When does political spin become an outright lie?

The Menino administration would like the citizens of Boston to believe that they go to great lengths to keep them, their children, and their property safe and protected. They want you to think that the strained relationship between the administration and the city’s firefighters hasn’t jeopardized your well being. Boston Firefighters believe that this is far from the truth.

Did you know that the city’s policy for medical response often prohibits Boston Firefighters from responding to the scene of a medical emergency? Boston Firefighters are trained first responders; many are emergency medical technicians (EMTs) and paramedics. Instead of having the nearest firehouse respond, the city has authorized a list of what we can and cannot respond to, and residents and visitors to Boston are suffering as a result.

If a person is shot or stabbed on a Boston street- even in close proximity to a firehouse- we are not dispatched to assist. One stabbing victim passed out on the sidewalk in front of Dudley Street firehouse, and even after a passerby called 911, the city policy kept 10 trained EMTs inside the firehouse from being notified. Who knows if some of the hundreds of homicide victims in this city could have been saved if this policy did not exist?

The city’s administration wants firefighters to respond to only certain medical calls. A critically injured person would certainly benefit from the most immediate medical treatment available. When seconds count, why would the City’s administration choose not to utilize the closest medically trained personnel? If it were your loved one, wouldn’t you want the most immediate help possible?

This protocol doesn’t just apply to shootings and stabbings. Boston Firefighters are often prohibited from responding to rescues, motor vehicle accidents, subway accidents and medical alert alarms. The Menino practice has been responsible for elderly citizens left laying on the floor after a fall, unassisted, for periods of up to a half hour while BFD units were three to four minutes away.

If you’ve waited longer than four minutes, chances are this management policy has failed you. As Boston Firefighters, we took an oath to protect those that live and work in Boston. Why would the city prevent that? It’s time Boston had a mayor who puts public safety before politics. Period.

Boston is fast becoming one of the life science capitals of the world, which is great news both for jobs and our economy. Already there are 5,000 laboratories in our city – more than any other city in the world – and that number is expected to grow in the years to come. As citizens, we should be excited about this growth. But as firefighters, we are concerned.

What happens if one of these laboratories is the scene of an accident involving hazardous materials? Does the City of Boston have the capacity today to handle whatever might occur? Are we prepared for the most difficult and dangerous types of chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, or explosive events?

Many people are surprised when they learn that Boston does not have a dedicated hazardous materials unit within the city. When you think about it – given the growth of life sciences in our city – it is both puzzling and embarrassing. The fact is that the City of Boston has consistently refused to fund a dedicated HazMat unit. Will it take a disaster to get action from the Menino administration? Do you think, as Mayor Menino does, that dealing with this issue is merely a distraction?

This is one of the many important public safety issues that needed to be addressed during the current collective bargaining contract negotiations, prior to being suspended by the Mayor with his request for arbitration on August 1, 2007. Predictably, the Mayor has created a distraction of his own. In order to circumvent the collective bargaining process and bully the union, he has shamelessly taken advantage of the tragic death of two of Boston’s bravest firefighters to smear Local 718 and the firefighting community by claiming falsely that the union is unwilling to submit to random drug and alcohol testing. Nothing could be further from the truth. His manipulation of the press, through classic disinformation tactics, bordering on lies, has been designed to turn 300 years of favorable public opinion of firefighters against us. Shame on him.

As President of Boston Firefighters Local 718 and on behalf of our union members, I pledge to the citizens of Boston that a fair and quality random drug and alcohol testing program will be included in our new contract with the City of Boston. We will continue to raise the many other public safety deficiencies that may be distractions to the Mayor but are vital to firefighters and the well being of the citizens of Boston. The “distraction” of a hazardous materials disaster should not dictate public policy. It is time the City of Boston had a Mayor who puts public safety before politics.