The Detroit firefighters union has filed an unfair labor charge over a controversial response policy that dictates how crews use lights and sirens.
The Detroit News reports that The Detroit Fire Fighters Association filed the complaint Friday with the Michigan Employment Relations Commission, alleging the city had violated its duty to bargain in good faith when it instituted the new policy.
Under the new policy, runs by the city's fire department are classified by two codes: one for emergent runs, which use lights and sirens; and the other for non-emergent calls, which do not.
"This just shows the absolute disregard for the bargaining unit and the public," IAFF Local 344 President Mike Nevin said Monday. "The mayor better take a good, hard look at what's going on here. I'm not playing around."
Detroit Fire Commissioner Eric Jones has argued that disregarding traffic signals and speed limits with the activation of lights and sirens for every single run—even when it's not urgent—is unnecessarily dangerous for firefighters and the public. Jones has noted that of the 400 to 500 requests for fire-related incidents the department receives per week, about 50 percent are non-life-threatening.
"The new policy keeps firefighters and the community safer and is supported by FEMA and the International Association of Firefighters," Detroit Corporation Counsel Lawrence Garcia said in a statement.
"The policy change in question does not violate the collective bargaining agreement in any way, and the fire commissioner and his administration were well within their authority to implement it. We look forward to the (Michigan Employment Relations Commission) hearing on the matter.”
