Firefighters union sought illegal boycott during contract fight, Pa. court says

The union representing Chambersburg's paid firefighters engaged in an illegal "secondary boycott" by urging volunteer firefighters not to answer calls in the borough during a contract dispute, a state court has ruled.

A divided Commonwealth Court panel also concluded that borough officials didn't commit an unfair labor practice when they suspended a borough-employed union official who sent a letter urging volunteers not to respond to fires and crashes in town.

The court's recent ruling - which was opposed by one of the three state judges who weighed the case - overturns a decision by the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board that favored the union.

The legal battle stems from an announcement borough leaders made in mid-2011 during contract negotiations with Local 1813 of the International Association of Fire Fighters, the union that represents the 21 full-time paid firefighters who worked for the borough at that time.

Borough leaders said that, due to budget constraints, they would have to reduce the paid fire fighting staff.

Patrick Martin, a borough fire captain and president of the local union, then sent a letter to all the IAFF union members in the area, including 24 paid firefighters who also volunteered with the Franklin Fire Company.

The Franklin Company is one of the main volunteer units that serves Chambersburg, and it has the heavy equipment needed to free people trapped in vehicles and buildings, Commonwealth Court Judge Renee Cohn Jubelirer wrote in her court's majority opinion on the case. The 24 Franklin volunteers who belonged to the IAFF also held paid firefighting jobs with fire companies in Virginia, Washington, D.C., and for federal installations.

Martin's letter notified the union members at the volunteer units about the borough's plan to pare its paid firefighting force. He asked them to "adhere to the constitution and by-laws of our great union by refraining from providing volunteer fire fighting services to the Borough of Chambersburg."

"This support is necessary to protect the jobs of our local members," he wrote.

Jubelirer noted that internal misconduct charges were later brought again 10 Franklin volunteers and IAFF members who disregarded Martin's plea and kept answering fire calls in the borough.

Borough officials suspended Martin from his borough post for 240 hours for writing the letter, the judge added.

The case went to the labor relations board when the borough filed an unfair labor practice complaint against the union over Martin's letter, while the union filed a complaint with the board over Martin's suspension.

The borough appealed when the labor board ruled in the union's favor in October 2013, dismissing Chambersburg's complaint and voiding Martin's suspension. The labor board conclude that the union hadn't tried to foment an illegal secondary boycott among the volunteers.

Jubelirer and fellow Commonwealth Court Judge Mary Hannah Leavitt reached the opposite conclusion in overturning the labor board's ruling.

There is no doubt, Jubelirer wrote, that the objective of Martin's letter was to deprive the borough of a key part of its volunteer firefighting force and place it in a position where it "would no longer have the equipment and manpower necessary to protect its citizenry." That, in turn, "would force the borough not to furlough paid firefighters," she found.

In the lone dissenting opinion, state Senior Judge Rochelle S. Friedman supported the labor board's ruling, arguing that her colleagues had "exceeded this court's scope of review" in voiding the decision

Source: PennLive.com