Blitzed by the firefighters union
TAXPAYER money is pouring out of the Boston Fire Department as if from the powerful high-pressure hose that firefighters call the "blitz line." The Menino administration must get a grip on the overtime, injury leave, and pension excesses that threaten to consume millions of dollars - along with public confidence in the integrity of the department.
Last week, the Globe reported on an epidemic of Boston firefighters claiming tax-free disability pensions rather than regular retirement benefits. One perplexing practice enabled 102 firefighters since 2001 to retire with higher disability pensions after reporting that they sustained on-the-job injuries while filling in for superiors at higher pay grades. The injury leaves alone are incredibly costly - $43.5 million from 2003 to 2006. And overtime costs keep rising to keep pace.
"It just keeps getting worse," says Samuel Tyler, who has tracked high costs and failed reforms in the department for years as head of the Boston Municipal Research Bureau. "The union thinks it is in control."
An air of unreality is starting to develop. Union president Edward Kelly says firefighters intend to picket Mayor Menino's State of the City address tonight because "the administration is trying to bully the union" during months of unsuccessful contract negotiations. But if anyone has gotten strong-armed over the years, it is the taxpayers, who can't understand why the union is resisting mandatory random drug and alcohol testing after reports that one of the firefighters who died in an August blaze was legally drunk and another had traces of cocaine in his system.
The Menino administration shares blame for the firefighters' growing sense of entitlement. It has given away too much at the collective bargaining table over the years. Even when the city managed in the 2001 contract to negotiate provisions to assign injured firefighters to light duty, it left gigantic loopholes - including an automatic six-week stay-at-home provision for those same firefighters. But the current contract impasse and the deeper problems at the department have more to do with a tradition of insularity among firefighters so deep that any management reform efforts are quickly doused. The union even refuses to take its seats on a special commission recommended by specialists after the deadly August blaze.
Wisely, the state Division of Labor Relations agreed to intervene yesterday, in response to a request by the Menino administration. A letter from the division's acting director, Michael Byrnes, indicates that the state "accepts jurisdiction of the dispute," which could eventually lead to binding arbitration. But that still depends on aggressive action by the state's Joint Labor Management Committee, which has ultimate jurisdiction over police and fire labor disputes.
It needs to happen soon. Boston residents shouldn't be asked to absorb much more. 