OCEAN CITY — One week after the deadline for a new labor contract between the Town of Ocean City and its firefighter union expired with an impasse over proposed shift changes, the issue continued to boil over at a chippy Mayor and Council meeting on Monday.
Last week, the deadline on the town’s new contract with the Career Firefighter Paramedics Association of Ocean City, IAFF Local 4269, passed without an agreement on a variety of issues, most notably a change in the scheduling of the shifts for the resort’s paramedics. With the deadline approaching, the IAFF 4269 negotiation team walked away when the town and its fire department administrators would not budge on a provision in the proposed contract that would eliminate the paramedics’ current shift schedule.
On Monday, well over 100 red-clad career and volunteer firefighters and paramedics and supporters crammed into the council chambers in a show of solidarity against the proposed shift change and to voice their displeasure with the “best and last offer” from the resort on the new contract. The evening was, for the most part, cordial and respectful, but it was clear by the end there is a still a great divide between the union members and the Mayor and Council, and perhaps more importantly a rift between the rank and file and the fire department leadership, including Fire Chief Chris Larmore.
The town’s “best and last offer” will be the new contract by default effective July 1 and includes step and COLA salary increases for union members along with an early drop program for veteran paramedics. The proposed elimination of the current 24-hour shifts followed by 72 hours off would not go into effect until October 2017, but it continues to drive a wedge between the career firefighters and the town’s elected officials, and perhaps more importantly is exposing tensions between the rank and file and leadership.
Citing potential fatigue and hindered decision-making in critical situations, slower response times on late night and early morning calls and even a handful of missed or dropped calls over the last few years, the town remains adamant about moving away from the 24-72 schedule. Instead, the town was pushing for 12-hour shifts with mixed days off, or some sort of hybrid.
Not surprisingly, the safety of the paramedics and the response times to EMS calls for the public are paramount for both sides, but neither can currently agree on how to best achieve that. The union continues to assert the current 24-72 schedule, which has been in place for decades, best meets the needs of the paramedics and the public. However, the town and its fire department leadership contend increased calls for service and more than a few missed calls or delayed responses are reason enough to move to an alternative schedule for the paramedics.
Although the town’s best and last offer will become the new contract as of July 1, there is still wiggle room for negotiation. Built into the contract is a Labor Management Committee, a neutral arbiter of sorts, which is scheduled to meet on Friday. A discussion of alternative schedules for paramedics is on that agenda and both sides will likely sit at the table to discuss the proposed change from the current 24-72, but it is uncertain if any middle ground can be found.
In the meantime, it appears after Monday’s meeting the two sides are moving farther apart of the issue. IAFF Local 4269 President Ryan Whittington addressed the Mayor and Council and asked them to reconsider the best and last offer and the elimination of the 24-72 schedule for paramedics.
“I’m here tonight to speak about the recent contract negotiations and the drastic schedule you’ve proposed,” he said. “The current proposal is subjective and without justification and is not warranted.”
Whittington said there was a willingness to discuss alternatives, but the elimination of the 24-72 schedule was creating heartburn at best for the union members.
“The town’s proposal is causing frustration and animosity and none of your firefighter/paramedics that are here tonight like that, and that’s why we’re here,” he said. “We believe the shift change in the rotation would be unsafe and a detriment to the department. We’ve always had a collaborative working relationship and any time anything arises we have been able to work those out.”
Response Times Debated
At the heart of the issue is the difference in response times during the daytime and nighttime hours. Both sides have acknowledged there have been instances when the goal response time of two minutes from the call to leaving the firehouse has not been met. However, Whittington suggested the union was not made aware of the town’s concerns about response times until it was time to sit down at the negotiation table. The city called that point disingenuous last week.
“Inefficient response times appear to be the primary reason for concern here,” he said. “If this was so important and so urgent, then why was it concealed until the contract negotiations to bring it forward. These men and women want to do absolutely the best and if this was so important, it should have been addressed and we should have been talked to.”
Whittington pointed to the department’s stellar record of meeting that two-minute goal.
“In the previous three years, we ran an estimated 18,000 calls for service,” he said. “The current expectations are that we have to be out the door in under two minutes. We responded within that guideline 99.97 percent of the time and many would say that’s an impressive record.”
The union president said the statistics point to a rested and rejuvenated workforce under the current 24-72 schedule.
“Based on these facts, there is no doubt you can tell that the firefighter/paramedics that report to work are fully rested, recharged and ready to go and that’s why we deliver top notch service,” he said.
Change Intended To Lower Morale?
Firefighter Tim Jerscheid suggested there was more to the proposed change to an alternative shift for paramedics than immediately meets the eye.
“The shift change proposal is a ploy to break the morale of the members of the department,” he said. “Why not offer a shift that is recognized nationally for the fire service?”
Jershied recognized the potential for sleep deprivation during the 24-hour shifts, but said the 24-72 program is better than shorter shifts with shorter recovery time.
“As for sleep deprivation, I feel that’s important and I understand what you’re talking about,” he said. “I certainly want the best of the best for my mom and dad who reside here in this town. Yes, we go home tired. We go home for three days off to recuperate and trust me when I tell you, three days is necessary to recuperate. Twelve hours to go back is not enough time.”
As part of the best and last offer, the 24-72 shifts would not be eliminated until October 2017, ostensibly to allow the paramedics to adjust to the change. However, Jerscheid suggested there might be ulterior motives disguised as an olive branch.
“Moving it to October 2017 gets you two summers,” he said. “It allows older employees to be retired and younger employees hired under the new contract.”
From the beginning, the union has contended its members are used to the 24-72 shifts and have adapted their family lives around the schedule. Volunteer firefighter, long-time Ocean City Beach Patrol officer and dispatcher Colby Phillips said most of the paramedics have spouses and children that are adjusted to the current schedule and eliminating it would create undue hardship.
“I come from a perspective of the family side of things,” she said. “I really feel that this schedule change will have a huge impact on people’s lives. The heart and soul, the boots on the ground, need to be heard on this.”
Volunteer firefighter Connor Braniff also spoke on behalf of his brothers and sisters in red.
“We all have much to lose,” he said. “My opinion is that switching shifts unnecessarily to a 12-hour shift will cause safety issues, jeopardize career and volunteer firefighters and will cost the town more money.”
Braniff said the rift is leading the town and its paramedics down a road they might not want to travel.
“This can be as simple as you want it to be or as complicated as you want it to be,” he said. “We have established ourselves as a combination fire department that is unique in almost every way. I do not resist change and I don’t mind change, but I do mind change that is unnecessary. Pick your battles wisely, and I don’t think this is a battle that anybody wins.”
Local resident Steve Kenny related the story of a short response time for the paramedics to a 911 call for his mother. Kenny said the paramedics responded in what seemed like a minute and quickly worked to save his mother. He urged the Mayor and Council to reconsider eliminating 24-72 and pointed to the statistics to prove his point.
“It’s important that we respect what we’ve heard tonight,” he said. “The city should be happy with those statistics we heard earlier. To change something that they don’t want changed makes zero sense to me.”
Chief Disputes Union Head’s Statistics
When it was his turn to speak, Larmore chose to address the Mayor and Council from a table in front of the dais and not from the podium as previous speakers had, which caught the ire of individuals in the audience. Symbolically, Larmore addressing the council with his back to the assembled throng perhaps illustrated the growing rift between the chief and his charges, or perhaps he was just more comfortable sitting down for his long presentation. In either case, it did not go unnoticed.
“I can’t think of anything more difficult than to be in a position to have an appearance of being against my people,” he said. “I want to be very clear about that. No chief would put themselves in that position.”
Larmore characterized the issue as a mere difference of opinion about the validity of 24-72 and its proposed alternatives.
“Unfortunately, despite that respect and admiration, we do have a difference of opinion when it comes to the best schedule to serve our residents and visitors,” he said. “It’s as simple as that. It is a difference of opinion.”
Larmore then began to systematically contradict some of Whittington’s assertions, including the suggestion the union was ambushed by the propose shift change during the negotiations.
“The union president indicated this was concealed,” he said. “I don’t know how this was concealed when we have an existing contract that was drafted and signed three years ago. All new employees go to alternative shifts and 13 were hired with that understanding.”
Larmore also discounted to some degree the union’s proposed percentage figures for meeting the two-minute response time.
“We’ve heard 99.97 percent of the time the department is able to have less than a two-minute response time,” he said. “Credibility means a lot and to have a statement like that is irrational. It’s simply not true.”
Larmore claimed the true statistics on response times told a different story.
“The union president has said only two calls out of 5,927 missed that two-minute guideline,” he said. “While that is very commendable, the reality is 93.6 percent of our EMS calls were answered under two minutes and 87.4 percent of all calls were answered under two minutes. That leaves over 350 calls that were not answered in under two minutes.”
While it did not come immediately during the chief’s presentation, Whittington later questioned Larmore’s response, perhaps further illustrating the growing rift.
“We’ve never heard from the fire chief until tonight,” he said following the meeting. “For him to question my credibility is disheartening. We’re talking about five calls, not 350. Our department has never missed a call for service.”
Larmore suggested the two-minute response time was no longer the industry standard and moving away from 24-72 would help the paramedics lower those times even further.
“It is the ultimate goal of this department to get closer to the national standard expected at many departments, which is 60 to 80 seconds, not two minutes,” he said. “It’s about better service of delivery and the expectation that all of us believe the citizenry is entitled to.”
Larmore said the administration and the town were cognizant of the potential adjustments for the paramedics with the gradual move away from 24-72.
“I can tell you without any question there is no hesitation that we recognized the impact on our employees,” he said. “We believe they need time to adjust to this schedule. That’s why we ultimately proposed an 18-month period for them to be able to adjust to this schedule change. There were many statements out there that we were going to try to do this in four months. That’s simply not true.”
Chief Maintains System Needs Changes For Safety
Throughout the evening, the ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ mantra was repeated often. Larmore said if the current system isn’t broken entirely, it is at least in need of repair.
“Very simply, it may not be broke in half, but there are areas of improvement that have been discussed because, very frankly, we are not proud of those,” he said. “However, we have attempted to fix it and we’re going to continue to fix those.”
Larmore further suggested the issue goes beyond simply delayed response times.
“There were five calls in the last four years that were not just delayed,” he said. “Personnel did not answer the dispatch. On many of those calls, personnel were asleep. That is a fact and I’m not proud of that fact. I’m sure none of our people are proud of that fact.”
The chief suggested the union’s statistic, while impressive, fell short of the desired goal in some instances.
“That’s five out of 18,000 and that’s not bad, but that depends on if that was you calling 911,” he said. “I had to go to that family and explain that delayed response and I gave my word I would not have to do that again.”
Larmore said the decision to move away from 24-72 was not made arbitrarily and came only after hundreds of hours of research by Deputy Chief Chuck Barton. Barton’s findings were presented to the Mayor and Council in December in advance of the contract negotiations.
“It left absolutely no ambiguity that a 24-hour shift does not provide the service to the community we believe they expect,” he said. “Both judgment and coordination are impaired after long shifts. Studies show persons who are awake for extended periods of time show symptoms similar to alcohol intoxication.”
Larmore said changes in the way paramedics operate necessitate the proposed shift change. For example, he said the department changed from using morphine to Fentanyl, which is 100 times stronger. He also said the paramedics have a process whereby they can paralyze an individual and take over their breathing.
“With things of that nature, we believe our people need to be on their game 100 percent of the time,” he said. “I’ve had some of my very best employees come to me with concerns about fatigue because the town and our call volume is changing.”
The Mayor and Council listened quietly to both sides before weighing in at the end of the meeting. Councilman Dennis Dare attempted to diffuse any ‘us versus them’ mentality that arose at times during the meeting.
“I get the feeling there is a sense that we don’t support our firefighter/paramedics but nothing could be further from the truth,” he said. “I don’t want anybody to think, and I think I can speak for everybody up here, that we don’t support you. Some of us just disagree on this one item about the schedule.”
From the beginning, the Mayor and Council have suggested they didn’t want the delayed response times and potential dropped calls to become a larger issue and Dare presented an analogy to illustrate the point.
“How many times have you heard people say about a traffic intersection that has many accidents and near misses that ‘how many people have to be killed before they install a traffic signal,’” he said. “I kind of feel that’s where we are with this. We’ve had calls that have been missed or greatly delayed and I don’t want to be in a position when someday somebody suffers from this. I think we owe it to our residents and visitors that we have give them our best effort 24 hours a day, 12 hours at a time.”
Night Calls Delayed
Mayor Rick Meehan characterized the impasse over the proposed schedule change as unfortunate, but said there was still ample time to consider alternatives.
“We’ve been able to negotiate a lot of contracts and now it’s unfortunate that in this particular instance we’ve reached an impasse,” he said. “I can assure you that’s not where we want to be and I honestly don’t think that’s where you want to be.”
While acknowledging the impressive response statistics, Meehan said moving to an alternative schedule will only improve them.
“It’s all about the great service provided and nobody can deny that, but I think we want it to be even better,” he said. “We heard about Mrs. Kenny and the quick response time, but if you had been one of those other calls, it might have been a little different.”
Meehan invited the union to resume discussing scheduling alternatives, but did not give any indication 24-72 could be back on the table.
“I know it’s not going to be perfect, but it is 2016 and things change,” he said. “The fire service has changed and our EMS calls far exceed our actual fire calls. What we do today is different than what we used to do, but I think we have an opportunity by working together to ensure even better service.”
However, Meehan did not miss an opportunity to point out the union walked away from the negotiations after the elimination of24-72 was added to the equation. However, there is still time through the Labor Management Committee to find some middle ground.
“During the negotiations, we kept coming back and asking for input from the negotiation team for alternative shifts and we provided a couple at their request that the committee didn’t like,” he said. “I think there might be some disconnect there, but there is certainly a willingness to work with you on those alternative shifts. It’s a difficult decision, but I look at the calls at night that are 40 seconds later than the daytime and we believe everybody should have the same service.”
