WATERTOWN, NY—The city has lost its battle to take an arbitration case against the city’s firefighters’ union to the state’s highest court.
The Court of Appeals has denied the city’s request to hear the ruling that would have prevented the case over “minimum manning” from going to arbitration.
The state Appellate Division, Fourth Department’s earlier decision allowed an arbitrator to determine if a “minimum manning” clause can continue in the firefighters’ labor contract. The city appealed that ruling to the Court of Appeals, but the highest court denied the city’s request without elaboration.
Union president Daniel Daugherty heard from the labor group’s attorney Thursday afternoon that the court won’t hear the appeal.
“It just shows the union was right to take it to arbitration,” he said, predicting the union will win in arbitration. “It should be an open-and-shut case.”
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The minimum manning clause has been the main sticking point during the city’s nearly five-year contract stalemate with the firefighters’ union.
Last year, the Appellate Division unanimously reversed a ruling by state Supreme Court Judge James P. McClusky, who determined in January 2018 that the city can block arbitration in the contract dispute.
With the highest court granting just a few of those requests, the city had to petition the Court of Appeals and convince the seven-judge panel to take the case because the lower court’s decision was unanimous. It was considered a long shot for the highest court to take the case.
Mr. Daugherty, who represents the Watertown Professional Fire Fighters Association Local 191, suggested that the city could save more in legal bills by offering to settle instead of going through the process of arbitration.
He plans to call the state Public Employees Relation Board to start working on finding an arbitrator to take the case.
After selecting an arbitrator, the union and the city would schedule a meeting, complete briefings and submit documentation before the arbitration process could begin.
“It’s a long, drawn-out process,” he said.
The 68-member union has been without a contract since July 2014.
The city has argued that the minimum manning issue resulted in “no layoff clauses” and job security. The firefighters’ union has contended it was a safety issue for 15 firefighters to be on duty at all times. Once it goes through arbitration, the two sides must then begin negotiating a new contract that goes back to July 2016.
Terry O’Neil, the Long Island attorney representing the city in the matter, and Mayor Joseph M. Butler Jr. could not be reached for comment.
In 2015, the city demoted eight fire department captains, leaving firefighters to cover those duties. The move caused the dispute to become more contentious.
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