Members of Pittsburgh’s firefighters union have accused a city labor attorney of threatening a neutral arbitrator during negotiations over a new contract in an attempt to influence a decision in the city’s favor.
The arbitration panel ultimately awarded Pittsburgh firefighters a new contract that includes raises totaling 20% over five years, but the decision came with accusations of wrongdoing by an attorney for the city.
Josh Bloom, an attorney representing the firefighters, attached a handwritten note to the arbitration documents expressing concern that Richard Miller, who works in the Downtown firm of Campbell Durrant and serves as a labor lawyer for Pittsburgh, contacted neutral arbitrator Jane Desimone Minnich and made threats in an attempt to leverage a favorable decision for the city.
“The city denies the baseless claim that there was any improper or unethical conduct by the city’s outside labor counsel,” said Tim McNulty, spokesman for Mayor Bill Peduto.
Philadelphia attorney Kan Jarin, who represents Campbell Durrant, said the city asked Miller to replace an assistant city solicitor who became ill during the arbitration. Miller, he said, contacted Minnich only to inform her of that. He said communications regularly go back and forth between attorneys and others involved with an arbitration. Such communications are permitted by law, he said.
“What Rich did was what someone would normally do, which is to reach out to the neutral and say the city has asked me to step in,” Jarin said. “I can say with certainty there were no threats whatsoever. Rich Miller is among the most ethical, careful, deliberative lawyers I’ve ever dealt with.”
Miller ended up not working on the firefighter arbitration.
Minnich did not respond to phone and email messages seeking comment.
Ralph Sicuro, president of International Association of Firefighters Local 1, declined comment, as did Bloom. Bloom referred questions to attorney Samuel Stretton of West Chester, who specializes in judicial ethics and was retained by the union to review Miller’s alleged conduct.
Stretton said Miller contacted Minnich after the two sides issued a draft contract award and made threats to influence her final decision.
“It’s really frightening and upsetting that someone from the city would contact a neutral arbitrator and make demands, threats through ex-parte communications,” Stretton said. “You don’t have other people come in and attempt to influence the neutral arbitrator. We think it’s wrong, a violation of legal ethics and could be an obstruction of justice.”
In the handwritten note printed on the bottom of the award document, Bloom wrote that he had serious concerns about Miller’s conduct, which he believed “obstructed justice to the arbitration proceedings and ultimately resulted in substantial harm to the firefighters.”
The firefighters’ contract expired in December and went to arbitration after the two sides reached a stalemate in negotiations early this year. An arbitration panel consists of three members: one partial arbitrator each for the city and union and a neutral arbitrator. Bloom represented the union on the panel.
Minnich and Bloom reached a majority decision that, among other things, awarded raises totaling 20% over the five-year contract. Firefighters will receive a 7% raise for 2019 retroactive to January, 4% in 2020 and 3% in each of the remaining years.
The city has yet to sign off on the contract or appeal it in court.
McNulty declined to comment on the award, saying the city is still reviewing it.
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