The large painted sign outside the Providence Fire Department station on Brook Street has been there longer than most students have been at Brown.
Today, the sign reads, "Providence Firefighters Working Without a Contract for 853 Days," but until last spring the number of days was over 1,600. The drop is the result of an agreement between the International Association of Fire Fighters Union Local 799 and the Providence city government to settle the longstanding contract dispute with binding arbitration.
On March 16, the union was awarded a 9.6-percent retroactive raise for the years 2001 through 2003 by independent arbitrator Michael Ryan, according to a March 17 Providence Journal article. Ryan ruled that union members should not have to share the cost of health care benefits with the city for those years.
The 2004 contract is currently under arbitration. Paul Doughty, president of Local 799, said the firefighters' "Big Four" issues - wages, health care, pensions and staffing - have remained the same ever since the union rejected the city's first contract proposal in 2001.
At an Oct. 5 endorsement convention, the Rhode Island AFL-CIO censured Mayor David Cicilline '83 for his "anti-union positions and actions against the members of Providence Local 799," according to the International Association of Fire Fighters Web site.
The last contract proposed by the city before arbitration began offered firefighters an 8-percent raise for 2004 and following years, with no possibility for a retroactive raise for years before 2004, according to the Journal article.
The union rejected that contract by a margin of just six votes last fall.
Doughty blamed Cicilline for the slow negotiation process, adding that Cicilline "made promises he couldn't keep" and allowed his "vanity" to get in the way of the negotiations.
In 2002, during his first campaign, Cicilline promised a contract agreement within 30 days of his election, according to the IAFF Web site.
Despite frustration with Cicilline, Doughty said the union was pleased with the results of last spring's arbitration for the 2001, 2002 and 2003 contracts, which he called "reasonable" and "middle-of-the-road."
"Arbitration vindicated our positions," Doughty said. "(The arbitrator) agreed that we were never overreaching or greedy as (Cicilline) tried to portray us."
Doughty said health care benefits continue to be a sticking point in the negotiations. For their 2004 contract, all other unions for city employees agreed to share part of the cost of health care benefits. Doughty said sharing health care costs with the city would be unfair to firefighters because firefighters work under drastically different conditions than other city employees.
"(Cicilline's) public policy is a cookie-cutter approach. He wants all (the city's) employees to be treated the same," Doughty said. "Our job is much different - not easier or harder, but very different."
When asked if he thinks the results of the contract negotiations would have an effect on Cicilline's re-election bid, Doughty said, "Are you kidding? No, not even a little bit. It won't even be a blip on the radar."
Darrell West, professor of political science and director of the Taubman Center for Public Policy, said the re-negotiation of health care and retirement benefits has been an issue in numerous labor disputes across the country.
"City governments have taken a stance on this," West said, adding that the Providence mayor's office has had a "fairly consistent" position throughout negotiations with the firefighters.
West said the union and the city eventually agreed to arbitration because "the conflict reached a point where everyone wanted to take it off the table." He cited Cicilline's current campaign for re-election as one reason why the city agreed to arbitration.
Though it is illegal for firefighters to enact strike action, West said firefighters are "not entirely powerless" in their relations with the city, noting that they have the option of "informational pickets and attempts to embarrass the mayor."
He cited a 2004 incident when the firefighters union picketed a political event where then-vice presidential candidate John Edwards was scheduled to appear. The fundraiser was ultimately cancelled.
The union has attempted many times to force settlement of the contract. On one day in July 2003, 63 firefighters called in sick or took personal days, according to a July 2003 Associated Press report. In response, Cicilline obtained an order from the Rhode Island Superior Court requiring the firefighters to return to work. Then-union president David Peters said there was no abuse of sick leave and that at no time were citizens of Providence in danger, according to the AP article.
In a statement e-mailed to The Herald from his press secretary, Karen Southern, Cicilline wrote that he is "confident that at the end of this process we will reach a labor agreement that is fair to the firefighters and affordable to the taxpayers."
Cicilline wrote that the necessity of a binding arbitration process became clear after "union members rejected the agreement reached by their leadership and the city" after a long negotiation process.
