Thursday, September 23, 1999
Firefighters level blasts at management
BY JANICE MORSE
The Cincinnati Enquirer
HAMILTON — The city's firefighters are steamed.
More than three dozen of them packed a City Council meeting to overflowing Wednesday. Several toldabout labor-management discord and equipment problems before the group exited en masse, ignoring Mayor Tom Nye's pleas for them to stay and continue communication with council.
Fire Chief Lyle Moore sat silently and bit his lower lip.
The firefighters' goal was “to impress upon the council and leave no doubts in their minds whatsoever that there are very serious problems with the Team Hamilton labor-management program,” said Bill Quinn, president of the Hamilton Professional Firefighters Association.
They say that management has dismissed and ignored their concerns, despite Team Hamilton, a cooperative labor-management program established several years ago. The firefighters also have been upset about a payroll dispute, and some think a fellow firefighter was wrongfully terminated last week. They were expected to file an appeal on his behalf today with the city's Civil Service Commission.
“The topics discussed are deep-rooted and impact directly upon the lives, health and safety of Hamilton's firefighters, paramedics and the citizens that we serve,” Mr. Quinn said.
He said the group was withdrawing from the Team Hamilton process until definitive changes are made.
Mr. Nye said he was sorry to hear about the union's decision and felt it wasn't in the firefighters' best interest to cut that line of communication. “Let us know how we can help; let us know how we can work,” Mr. Nye said.
Mr. Quinn said he would make himself available.
Jennifer Thompson, a firefighter/paramedic supervisor, said she warned officials about “impending disasters with our most-used piece of equipment.” Cots used to transport patients were used 7,000 times last year without any maintenance, she said. But she said management treated her with disrespect when she raised the issue, despite cots malfunctioning and risking injury to firefighters and patients alike.
“We all feel jilted, deceived and lied to,” Ms. Thompson said, adding that the Team Hamilton concept was supposed to function to give people in the trenches a means of being heard.
Councilman Danny Crank said he wanted firefighters to know that council appreciates what firefighters do, and he felt some of the equipment concerns could be addressed with small expenditures. “It sounds to me like we need to make some amends,” he said.
Firefighter Ray Smith said firefighters no longer trust management, for a number of reasons.
He said the city tried to unilaterally implement health care and payroll changes without employees' input — contrary to the Team Hamilton philosophy — earlier this year.
Dedicating a 'work of art'
Corbett gift recognizes CCM dean
Covington plans new apartments on choice site
Welcome to Romanesque orgy of kitsch
$16 million asked for museum
Trade a key to new jobs
Wine festival boosts safety efforts
Just being a mentor makes you special
Bunning versus Patton: No love lost
Blood at seriously low level
Build it, and they will eat
Courts need advocates for abused youngsters
Firefighters level blasts at management
NBC's 'Third Watch' worth watching
Norwood struggles with chief's actions
Package of pot arrives with arrest on delivery
Portune calls tactic illegal
Afghan Whigs tone it down
Church, developers vie for prime land
Church serving well as school
Deputy: Suspect minimized DUI state
School a struggle for homeless
Students can practice at Web site for state's proficiency examinations
Deerfield trustees consider home rule
Four proposed charter schools make pitches
Historical society to visit Gilded Age
Teen could face adult trial in car wreck
GET TO IT
TRISTATE DIGEST
