Oxford’s full-time firefighters will finally get the chance to vote on whether or not they want union representation.
Last week, the township board voted 5-2 to allow the 12 full-time fighters to vote to create a collective bargaining unit, if they wish, that excludes the department’s 30 paid-on-call staff members, fire chief and administrative assistant.
‘I certainly don’t want to hold anyone back from having a choice to either belong to a union or not,? said township Supervisor Bill Dunn.
A majority of Oxford’s full-time firefighters have petitioned to be represented by the International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF) and its state affiliate, the Michigan Professional Fire Fighters Union (MPFFU).
The Michigan Employment Relations Commission (MERC), the state agency charged with conducting such elections, will mail out secret ballots to the 12 full-timers on Thursday, July 23.
The ballots contain a simple yes-or-no question ? ‘Do you desire to be represented by the following as your exclusive representative for the purpose of collective bargaining?? The IAFF is the only choice listed.
These ballots must be returned by 5 p.m. Monday, Aug. 10. They will be counted at the Detroit MERC Office at 10 a.m. Tuesday, Aug. 11.
Paul Hufnagel, president of the MPFFU and district field services representative for the IAFF, explained to the township board why the full-time firefighters wish to unionize.
‘Basically, what they want is to protect what they have,? he said.
In a nutshell, township officials and fire chiefs come and go depending on politics and elections, but career firefighters can be here for 20 to 35 years, according to Hufnagel.
‘They have a lot invested in the township,? Hufnagel said. ‘They need some protection. That’s why public employees in Michigan have been allowed to organize and have the laws to do that.?
‘I hope the firefighters aren’t doing this because they think they need protection or that this township has mistreated them,? Dunn noted.
‘That’s not my sense,? Hufnagel replied. ‘I don’t think that they feel they need protection.?
Hufnagel said the firefighters are seeking the ‘security? that a union contract provides.
‘Everything is spelled out in the contract,? he said. ‘It’s in black and white. There’s no questions.?
‘I think all of us, when we invest in something, want a contract or a piece of paper that tells us what we have, what we’ve earned and where we’re going. That’s what a contract essentially does.?
‘They have security as long as the residents of this community pass a millage,? Dunn noted. ‘If they (don’t) pass a millage, no one has a job.?
Hufnagel made it clear that ‘a union doesn’t guarantee that there’s always going to be a fire department.?
Some officials worried that excluding the paid-on-call staff would create a ‘them and us? division with the department.
‘I’m really torn with this,? Dunn said. ‘I don’t want to hold the full-times back, but I don’t want to split the fire department.?
Oxford’s paid-on-call staff made it clear they don’t wish to be part of a union when 23 of them signed a document stating that.
‘I don’t think it would be fair to hold us back or to put them in a union that they don’t want to be in,? said Darin Baliniski, the full-time Oxford firefighter who’s spearheading the pro-union effort.
Hufnagel explained that career firefighters and paid-on-call staffers perform ‘a very similar job? and work together, but they have different interests.
A full-timer depends on his job to provide income and benefits to support him or herself and a family. A paid-on-call staffer is paid less and receives no benefits because often they have a full-time job elsewhere that supports them and their family.
Although the IAFF only represents career firefighters and paramedics, Hufnagel said there are unions that take part-timers and paid-on-call staff, but they usually divide them into separate units because of their ‘different and varied interests.?
If Oxford’s full-timers vote to unionize and form their own local, Hufnagel made it clear the firefighters here would control their union, do the bargaining, determine what they bargain for and address how they handle grievances. The locals are ‘autonomous.?
‘It’s not like a typical union where it comes from the top down,? he said. ‘This organization really comes from the bottom up.?
Hufnagel said officials needn’t fear that having a union means having contract disputes end up in ‘long, drawn out? binding arbitrations.
‘That’s typically not the case,? he explained. ‘It’s too expensive, especially for a small local.?
Trustee Joe Bunting, who works as a full-time police officer for the City of Birmingham, said the IAFF firefighters in his city have been working without a contract for two years, while his own union’s been without one for more than a year.
‘It doesn’t always go as smooth as sometimes it’s presented to us,? Bunting said.
Hufnagel noted out of the 126 IAFF locals in Michigan ‘literally a handful of them? have reached an ‘impasse? in contract negotiations.
Unions members would pay around $20 per month in dues to the IAFF and MPFFU, plus whatever the local decides to charge.
?(Locals) set their own dues,? he said.
Dues charged by the local for the local would stay here to handle business.
For that monthly $20 fee, the state and international organizations provide the locals with training and technical assistance.
‘We try to train people to work within the budgets,? Hufnagel said. ‘We teach (the firefighters) to understand your budgets. We basically help them analyze budgets, so they know what’s going on. So they come to the table with reasonable expectations and reasonable proposals.?
For those who fear a union will mean more attorney bills, Hufnagel tried to put their minds at ease.
‘On our part, we don’t use lawyers at the bargaining table,? he said. ‘We want people dealing with people that know each other. It’s not good for somebody from the outside to come in and try to work in someone else’s structure.?
Having lawyers at the bargaining table is ‘very expensive? and unnecessary in Hufnagel’s view.
‘I bargained contracts for a lot of years at my own local and other ones, and I’ve never seen it work where there’s attorneys at the table,? he said. ‘We don’t bring one in because all they do is (run the hour-meter).?
The only thing the union needs a lawyer for is to look at the contract language to make sure ‘it falls within the state laws and you have a legal contract.?
‘That’s what you need them for,? he said.
Dunn noted should the township need to employ its own attorney to deal with the union or union-related issues, the money ‘will come out of the fire/ALS budget.?
‘That’s typical,? Hufnagel replied.