Tensions between the union representing firefighters in Pawtucket and the city administration are boiling over into public view.
The union, IAFF Pawtucket Firefighters Local 1261, filed a grievance last week after an assistant chief was suspended for two days stemming from his refusal to change a report about another firefighter who was badly injured on the job.
Mayor Donald Grebien, meanwhile, put off a political fundraiser he had planned for Monday at the Pawtucket Country Club, because the union had planned to picket it.
"Unfortunately, the fire union bullies mayors statewide as they protect their residents they are elected to serve," the statement said. "We will not provide the fire union this opportunity to intimidate those planning on attending the fundraiser."
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The two sides are not only fighting, they're fighting over what they're fighting about: The city says the planned protest was much ado about contract negotiations, while the union says it's raising concerns about safety for its membership and the people of Pawtucket.
"They don't take safety seriously, in our opinion," Scott Giroux, president of the local union and a firefighter in Pawtucket, said in an interview.
The recent two-day suspension of Assistant Chief Jay McLaughlin, a 35-year veteran of the Fire Department, marked a recent low point in the relationship between the union and Grebien's administration. The suspension and the circumstances leading up to it were first reported by WPRI.
McLaughlin's report looked into the fire on May 15 that led to the amputation of a firefighter's foot.
According to the report, the firefighter, a lieutenant, was on the roof of a building on Central Avenue preparing to cut a hole in the structure to ventilate it when a woman appeared in a third-floor window to call for help. The lieutenant returned to the aerial ladder to rescue the woman — a job that normally would have been done by a second ladder, "but the second ladder was out of service due to lack of funding for repair," McLaughlin's report stated.
The lieutenant instructed another firefighter to move the aerial to the woman while he was on it, and they verified that their hands and feet were clear of the moving rungs, the report said. Riding an aerial ladder, the report noted, is "extremely risky," but the lieutenant was "considering the life safety of the occupant and the urgency of the rescue," the report said.
The lieutenant slipped, and his left foot was crushed between the rungs of the ladder. His foot later had to be amputated.
McLaughlin was tasked with writing a report. He concluded that the root causes of the incident were occupying an aerial ladder while in motion, as well as the lack of a second ladder, meaning one ladder had to do the work of two. He also pointed to the lack of training.
McLaughlin recommended making training a priority, and properly funding repairs. He signed the report, "professionally yours."
The city, however, did not consider the report complete. Acting Public Safety Director Tina Goncalves, also the police chief, sent a letter to Fire Chief William Sisson requesting more information, and for an incident report free of "personal opinions and/or biases."
Sisson told McLaughlin to complete the report, with more details, on June 7. McLaughlin refused to change it, and was suspended without pay on Wednesday and Thursday last week.
"Chief Jay McLaughlin stands by the report," Giroux said. "We stand by him."
Giroux said the picket at Grebien's fundraiser was not about dollars and cents or contract negotiations, but safety for Pawtucket firefighters and residents.
"We'll just keep moving forward, and do what we're paid to do: protect citizens of Pawtucket," Giroux said.
Dylan Zelazo, the director of administration for the city, said McLaughlin's report fell short.
"I wouldn't even call it a 'report,'" Zelazo said in an interview at City Hall.
The city has no intention of disciplining the lieutenant whose foot was amputated and who made the call to try to rescue the woman, Zelazo said. The woman who was screaming for help was eventually rescued by other means.
The city and the union are in arbitration over a contract for the fiscal year ending around this time in 2017, Zelazo said, with several more years still in limbo.
"This is 100% about the contract," Zelazo said.
The city has acknowledged that two out of three ladder trucks were in for repairs the day of the fire on Central Avenue, but Zelazo said the city has invested heavily in fire equipment and buildings.
Grebien's office provided a statement from Sisson, the fire chief, who said that a second ladder would have faced the same choice the lieutenant's did. Moving the ladder with the firefighter on it "is never allowed as it goes against training," Sisson wrote.
"The mischaracterizations that the union leadership is making now is, quite frankly, disrespectful to our brother who was injured in the line of duty, when he made a judgment call in order to, in his mind, ensure the safety of a resident of Pawtucket," Sisson said.
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