Firefighters may picket mayor's speech

January 10, 2008 11:51 PM Email| Comments (0)| Text size – +

By Donovan Slack, Globe Staff

The Boston Firefighters Union has applied for a permit to picket Mayor Thomas M. Menino's state of the city address on Tuesday.

Local 718 has been working without a contract since July 2006. Negotiations broke down last year after the city refused to give firefighters a 21 percent raise over four years in exchange for allowing random drug and alcohol testing and other concessions.

The firefighters union has been under intense scrutiny since two firefighters died in a West Roxbury restaurant fire last August. Autopsy reports indicated one had a blood alcohol content of .27, and the other had traces of cocaine in his system.

Union officials said they had not decided whether to stage a picket on Tuesday, but they were "looking very closely" at the idea.

"There’s a strong probability that there will be a firefighter presence at the state of the city," said Edward Kelly, local 718 president.

If the firefighters follow through with picketing the mayor's speech, it will be the first time in years that Menino has had a public face-off with the union. In 2001, firefighters picketing his state of the city address yelled threateningly at the mayor's wife. Menino later met union demands in a similar contract dispute.

Tonight, city officials confirmed the union applied for a permit for an "informational picket" of his speech, scheduled to begin at 7:30 p.m., at the strand theater, in Dorchester.

City officials would not say whether they planned to issue the permit, and it was unclear how long the application process would take.

"We'll treat their application like any other application," said Dot Joyce, spokeswoman for Menino.