September 24, 2010– A panel of three arbitrators has ruled that all of the laid-off fire fighters in Uniontown, Pennsylvania, must be rehired.
Six members of Uniontown Local 955 were laid off in December 2009. During the IAFF 50th Convention in San Diego, Local 955 President Mark Lovey received a letter from the City warning that all remaining fire fighters would be laid off by January 1, 2011, and that the City would replace its career fire fighters with a volunteer department.
The members of Local 955, their legal counsel and the Pennsylvania Professional Fire Fighters Association responded, applying intense pressure on Uniontown Mayor Edward Fike.
Under the terms of the arbitrators’ eight-page ruling, the City of Uniontown will call fire fighters back in a matter of days, and there will be no layoffs over the next four years. Arbitrators also gave fire fighters a 3.5 percent wage increase each year for the next four years.
“Our attorney worked his butt off, but the truth is we had a lot of support from the International, the Pennsylvania Professional Fire Fighters Association and members from throughout the country who heard about what we were going through. They talk about this being a brotherhood and it really is,” Lovey says.
Layoffs reduced staffing from 13 to seven.
“With the help of the IAFF, and especially General President Schaitberger and Fourth District Vice President Bill Taylor, we were able to prevail in a situation that could have been tragic for the fire fighters and the residents of Uniontown,” PPFFA President Art Martynuska says.
Delegates at the IAFF Convention unanimously passed an emergency resolution condemning Mayor Fike for announcing his intent to eliminate the city’s entire career fire department. "We are going to bring money, marbles and chalk! Whatever it takes to win this fight, we will be in union!" Schaitberger told delegates.
“Uniontown is proof-positive that when the IAFF and its members stand together and take care of their own, we prevail,” DVP Taylor says.
