$127,000 to deal with firefighters

Months before union president Wade Ritchie was fired from his job as a firefighter-paramedic, documents show the City of Brandon was preparing for a difficult contract negotiation with the Brandon Professional Firefighter/Paramedics Association.

According to the proposed 2012 city budget, the city allocated $127,000 for labour relations, professional and consulting fees related to contract negotiations with the Brandon Fire and Emergency Services.

In the proposed 2012 budget, the city boosted the labour relations line item for the Brandon Fire and Emergency Services from $600 to $80,000, an increase of more than 13,000 per cent from the previous year.

Allison Collins, the city’s director of communications, said that expenditure covers the cost of an “external labour relations expert” required by the human resources department that will help negotiate four collective agreements in 2012. She added labour relations spending for the Canadian Union of Public Employees, E-911, Brandon Police Service and operators for the police dispatch service contract negotiations have all been increased.

While those labour relations expense increases were also higher, none exceeded $20,000 individually. Excluding the Brandon Professional Firefighter/Paramedics Association, the city planned to spend a maximum of $60,000 to settle the other expiring contracts.

In addition to the labour relations costs incurred by the human resources department, the city’s fire department budgeted $42,000 in consulting fees for 2012. In 2010, the city spent $229 according to its own budget figures, and budgeted $50,000 in 2011. They have projected to spend $42,000 in 2013.

“Based on the history of the past 15 months or so, a time period where the Brandon Professional Firefighters/Paramedics Association applied for four grievance arbitrations and filed four unfair labour practices with the Manitoba Labour Board, it was deemed necessary to budget accordingly in 2012 for such purposes,” Collins said, adding the city won all of those cases.

The human resources department also increased the amount the city pays in professional fees related to the fire department from $1,500 to $5,000 in 2012. Collins said those professional fees are, “a direct indicator of what Human Resources expects to spend on legal counsel relating to labour trends within the fire department.”

Collins said that Grant Mitchell, the city’s labour relations lawyer, has been called in to deal with issues related to the Brandon Professional Firefighters/Paramedics Association “over the past number of months.” Mitchell, who represented Brandon University during its 45-day faculty strike, also has a lengthy working relationship with the city.

Alex Forrest, the Canadian trustee of the International Association of Fire Fighters, expressed shock when informed of the city’s labour relations costs.

“Cities that have very bad labour relations pay a lot of money for legal fees and consultants,” Forrest said. “Because we are going forward to the Manitoba Labour Board with (Ritchie’s) unfair labour practice complaint, you can almost quadruple everything because it’s going to be that much more expensive.

“In large cities like Calgary, Vancouver, Edmonton, Halifax, Montreal and Toronto, the amount of consulting fees and legal fees are minimal. In Winnipeg, we have not had one grievance go forward in probably five years.”

Forrest, who is also president of the United Fire Fighters of Winnipeg, said most fire department executives in Canada have good labour relations with their staff because they were once union presidents.

“They know how to get along with their people,” Forrest said. “In Brandon, the chief (Brent Dane) is a former union president, but he doesn’t know how to get along with his men. You usually hire former union presidents because they have knowledge of labour laws and labour management, so you avoid the battles. For some reason, it’s adversarial in Brandon.”

Coun. Jan Chaboyer (Green Acres) also expressed concern about the state of labour relations between firefighters and the city.

“When I was elected, I understood that the city treated their employees fairly, with respect and attempted to resolve differences arising from the collective agreement without resorting to costly, time-consuming battles,” said Chaboyer, who is the president of the Brandon and District Labour Council. “Now it seems they handle labour relations through costly, ineffective consultants.

“Things have to change at city hall, starting with the reinstatement of Wade Ritchie back to duty and improving morale among the employees of this department. I am profoundly upset and stand in solidarity with Wade, the firefighters and their families.”

Ritchie was fired from his job on Thursday.

The city and the firefighters union can’t even agree on whether negotiations have started. Collins said on Friday morning that the city was not yet in negotiations with the Brandon Professional Firefighter/Paramedics Association as negotiating sessions have not been scheduled. She acknowledged that the two sides exchanged proposals on Oct. 3.

“That doesn’t mean negotiations have started,” Collins said. “Those dates have not been picked yet.”

Forrest said according to existing legislation, negotiations start when notice is given of a desire to negotiate, and an exchange of proposals is part of the negotiating process.

“This shows an astounding lack of knowledge on the negotiation process by the City of Brandon,” Forrest said. “It’s not only the common sense approach, but that is what is in law as well, under the Fire and Paramedic Arbitration Act.”

Collins said the city disputed Forrest’s claim that a meeting with Mayor Shari Decter Hirst had been requested as a means to amicably resolve the issues between Ritchie and city management.

“(Neither) Alex or the Brandon fire association have never requested a meeting with the mayor or city administration to discuss Wade Ritchie. Since the conduct review, there has never been a request.”

However, emails obtained by the Brandon Sun show Ritchie asked Decter Hirst on Oct. 17, 2011, to call him about his suspension. He identified himself as the local union president.

“Hi Wade,” Decter Hirst replied by return email about four hours later. “I’m not going to call as I don’t want to get into the middle of this.”

The city’s internal review of Ritchie’s conduct, which eventually resulted in Ritchie’s suspension and demotion, started on Oct. 14 and was still active on Oct. 18.

“We have had discussions with the mayor’s staff and have done everything we can to get a meeting with the mayor,” Forrest said. “I’ve actually talked with (Decter Hirst) in an informal discussion I won’t go into, and asked to meet with her formally … She knew we wanted to meet with her to try and settle this.”

Forrest said the union’s lawyers will work through the weekend to file another grievance and will seek an expedited hearing so that the arbitration can be heard within the next two weeks.

“We will look after him,” Forrest said. “We have contacted the locals and because Wade is going to go into financial distress, we will assist him with whatever he needs to hold him over until we get him reinstated.”

» kborkowsky@brandonsun.com

Republished from the Brandon Sun print edition January 28, 2012