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No court ruling in Somerville battle with firefighters over back pay
A Superior Court judge is considering arguments made today at a hearing in the lawsuit filed by the City of Somerville against the local firefighters union and a state agency over an arbitration award related to a contract dispute dating to 2007.
Judge Thomas Murtagh did not indicate when he would hand down a decision, Mayor Joseph A. Curtatone said after the proceeding that his administration will comply with state law requiring he submit an appropriation for the $4.3 million in back pay to the Board of Aldermen. The deadline for the submission is tomorrow, coinciding with a scheduled meeting of the board.
In court, Murtagh grilled Assistant City Solicitor Matthew Buckley on the city’s argument for not making an immediate payout of the $4.3 million.
Buckley contended that the Joint Labor Management Committee, which ruledin favor of the firefighters union in the arbitration with the city, did not sufficiently evaluate the city’s ability to pay, and that the mayor’s First Amendment right to speak against the award was curtailed by a law requiring that he “support” the payout.
Buckley also made a procedural challenge to how the state committee took up the case in the first place.
The union’s attorneys, lead by Paul Hynes, argued that the city objected to the award only after they learned of the amount, and the mayor speaking as a public official has no guarantee to First Amendment speech rights.
In the suit, filed in Middlesex Superior Court on Thursday, the city seeks to halt enforcement of the payout, saying the cost would trigger a $1.9 million budget shortfall this year and possibly lead to layoffs and cuts to a ‘‘myriad of services to the public,’’ according to a motion filed in the suit.
‘‘The [award] has enormous fiscal and public policy implications for the administration of city government and how city services are provided to members of the public, as well as the taxpayers of Somerville,’’ Mayor Joseph A. Curtatone said in a deposition included in the suit.
The International Association of Fire Fighters Local 76 and city negotiators have been in talks since 2007, when the firefighters’ last contract expired. Until last year, the sides had been communicating, but an impasse forced the dispute into mediation and then arbitration, a process overseen by the state Joint Labor Management Committee.
The opinion by the three-member panel orders retroactive annual pay increases of 2 percent for budget years starting in July 2007 and 2008, 2.5 percent in 2009 and 2010, and 3 percent in 2011.
Starting in 2009, it would also add stipends to firefighters’ base pay, a significant addition because the base pay rate is used to calculate pensions and other benefits that extend for years.
According to the suit, the city would be made to pay in equal installments over five years.
The panel was also involved in a controversy in 2010 when it facilitated an arbitration award to Boston firefighters that gave them what amounted to a 19 percent wage increase over four years in return for the city gaining the right to begin random drug and alcohol testing. The award was worth an average of more than $2,000 annually in extra pay for Boston’s 1,500 firefighters.
Also at issue in the Somerville case is a secondary allegation, made by a union attorney, who said Curtatone delayed submitting the $4.3 million appropriation to the Board of Aldermen. State law gives Curtatone 30 days to comply, a deadline that would run out tomorrow, when the board is scheduled for a regular meeting.
The Local 76 attorney, Paul T. Hynes, contends that Curtatone and others met earlier with the board to ‘‘poison the well’’ against supporting the award’s adoption.
At a closed-door session of the Board of Aldermen Tuesday night, more than 100 firefighters packed the board’s chambers.
Although Local 76 president Jay Colbert declined to comment, Edward Kelly, president of the Massachusetts Professional Firefighters Association, said the case is a test of arbitration for fire departments everywhere.
Curtatone ‘‘is challenging the only way police and firefighter unions can get a contract if they’re in dispute,’’ Kelly said.
Matt Byrne can be reached at mbyrne.globe@gmail.com.
Judge Thomas Murtagh did not indicate when he would hand down a decision, Mayor Joseph A. Curtatone said after the proceeding that his administration will comply with state law requiring he submit an appropriation for the $4.3 million in back pay to the Board of Aldermen. The deadline for the submission is tomorrow, coinciding with a scheduled meeting of the board.
In court, Murtagh grilled Assistant City Solicitor Matthew Buckley on the city’s argument for not making an immediate payout of the $4.3 million.
Buckley contended that the Joint Labor Management Committee, which ruledin favor of the firefighters union in the arbitration with the city, did not sufficiently evaluate the city’s ability to pay, and that the mayor’s First Amendment right to speak against the award was curtailed by a law requiring that he “support” the payout.
Buckley also made a procedural challenge to how the state committee took up the case in the first place.
The union’s attorneys, lead by Paul Hynes, argued that the city objected to the award only after they learned of the amount, and the mayor speaking as a public official has no guarantee to First Amendment speech rights.
In the suit, filed in Middlesex Superior Court on Thursday, the city seeks to halt enforcement of the payout, saying the cost would trigger a $1.9 million budget shortfall this year and possibly lead to layoffs and cuts to a ‘‘myriad of services to the public,’’ according to a motion filed in the suit.
‘‘The [award] has enormous fiscal and public policy implications for the administration of city government and how city services are provided to members of the public, as well as the taxpayers of Somerville,’’ Mayor Joseph A. Curtatone said in a deposition included in the suit.
The International Association of Fire Fighters Local 76 and city negotiators have been in talks since 2007, when the firefighters’ last contract expired. Until last year, the sides had been communicating, but an impasse forced the dispute into mediation and then arbitration, a process overseen by the state Joint Labor Management Committee.
The opinion by the three-member panel orders retroactive annual pay increases of 2 percent for budget years starting in July 2007 and 2008, 2.5 percent in 2009 and 2010, and 3 percent in 2011.
Starting in 2009, it would also add stipends to firefighters’ base pay, a significant addition because the base pay rate is used to calculate pensions and other benefits that extend for years.
According to the suit, the city would be made to pay in equal installments over five years.
The panel was also involved in a controversy in 2010 when it facilitated an arbitration award to Boston firefighters that gave them what amounted to a 19 percent wage increase over four years in return for the city gaining the right to begin random drug and alcohol testing. The award was worth an average of more than $2,000 annually in extra pay for Boston’s 1,500 firefighters.
Also at issue in the Somerville case is a secondary allegation, made by a union attorney, who said Curtatone delayed submitting the $4.3 million appropriation to the Board of Aldermen. State law gives Curtatone 30 days to comply, a deadline that would run out tomorrow, when the board is scheduled for a regular meeting.
The Local 76 attorney, Paul T. Hynes, contends that Curtatone and others met earlier with the board to ‘‘poison the well’’ against supporting the award’s adoption.
At a closed-door session of the Board of Aldermen Tuesday night, more than 100 firefighters packed the board’s chambers.
Although Local 76 president Jay Colbert declined to comment, Edward Kelly, president of the Massachusetts Professional Firefighters Association, said the case is a test of arbitration for fire departments everywhere.
Curtatone ‘‘is challenging the only way police and firefighter unions can get a contract if they’re in dispute,’’ Kelly said.
Matt Byrne can be reached at mbyrne.globe@gmail.com.
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