IN THE last few days, the madcap comedy company known as Local 718 has treated the Hub to a frolicking summer farce: The Boston Firefighters’ Fear-mongering Follies.
Our story so far: As it tries to cut overtime costs, the Menino administration has stopped automatically paying extra to round out fire companies when too many members call in sick. The city is putting some of those squads out of commission for the shift and sending their at-work members to fill in at other fire companies.
Now that banging in sick spells inconvenience rather than overtime for one’s colleagues, we’re seeing a reduction in supposed illnesses. An average of 36 firefighters are out sick on any given day, a number that usually spikes on holidays and long weekends. But according to Fire Commissioner Roderick Fraser, only 20 firefighters took a sick day on July 3; 14 on July 4; and 16 on July 5.
Not everyone is celebrating the new holiday healthiness, however. The firefighters union has been handing out leaflets and launching robocalls claiming the department’s policy is endangering city residents.
That argument is dubious indeed. After all, the department also shuts down companies when firefighters are getting training or a truck is gone for repairs and no spare is available. Further, department policy is that no more than eight of the city’s 59 companies will be closed at any one time, and that no more than four will be browned out for lack of manpower.
“I think it is a workable public safety solution,’’ says Sam Tyler, president of the Boston Municipal Research Bureau. “The real problem is the excessive use of sick time and injury leave by firefighters that necessitates the brownouts.’’
Precisely.
Although late to the table on fire department reform, Mayor Tom Menino wins solid marks both for the policy and for dismissing the union scare tactics as silly political theater.
So what would the city councilors who hope to replace him do? And do they, like Menino, support legislation to make random drug and alcohol testing a state requirement for all public safety workers? That’s anathema to unions, who insist testing must be bargained (read: paid) for.
Those queries found Councilor Michael Flaherty, who last week lent his person to Local 718’s tinny charge that Menino was endangering public safety, hoping to have it both ways. Flaherty, who blames the brownout problem on mayoral mismanagement rather than sick-day abuse, says he wouldn’t close any companies or stations. So would he pay overtime to plug the holes when too many firefighters are out sick?
The councilor sidesteps that choice by vowing a crackdown on misuse of sick time. “My administration will track absenteeism and institute a policy of verbal and written warnings, and disciplinary action,’’ he says. But given how readily Flaherty has sided with the firefighters, who have endorsed his mayoral candidacy, it’s fair to wonder whether he is really up for such a fight.
Asked about the drug and alcohol testing legislation, Flaherty called it unnecessary, saying he could secure testing at the department, and without paying more. Pressed, however, he finally said he supported the bill.
Councilor Sam Yoon, who offers qualified support for Menino’s approach, says he’d take the dispute public. “I’d say, ‘Here, Boston, here are the facts’ - and challenge the firefighters union to respond,’’ says Yoon. Like Menino, he backs the legislation to require testing.
Neither of the councilors would specify what he considers a fair yearly raise for firefighters at a time when many private-sector workers are seeing their wages frozen or cut. The city has offered a financial package worth 10.5 percent over three years; Local 718 wants an estimated 21 to 24 percent over five years.
Credit South End businessman Kevin McCrea with the fortitude to take that issue on. “They should get two to three percent a year,’’ says McCrea, who backs Menino’s approach on brownouts, even while questioning his motivation, and who also favors making testing a state requirement.
On this one, the incumbent and the outsider are more persuasive than the councilors who would be mayor.
Scot Lehigh can be reached at lehigh@globe.com. 
