essayfirefighter politics A
Every election year brings on the same hurdle for the firefighter's union. The mayoral candidates approach the union and ask for their support throughout the election. This is a major decision the union (union representatives) has to make. The representatives of the union have to approach the membership with their recommendation for whom to support so that the candidate will have full support from the union. Hopefully, the candidate chosen by the representatives of the union wins the election. If the candidate chosen does not win the election, the elected candidate not supported by the union, understandably, he has little or no respect for the union at that time. In the 1993 election year the union had to make a major decision on whom to support for mayoral position, the one we chose was defeated. Because he did not win, there was a struggle between union and management. This did not come about because the union was looking to control the new administration, but the town wanted benefits given back which were negotiated with the mayor that we were supporting. The union's main goal during this time frame was to get the new administration to have some kind of respect for us when we went down to the town hall to resol
The town agreed and the contract was signed. The administration now, which is running the town of Johnston, took over in 1994. There was a reason for the town to take the actions they did and the union knew this. The town's next fight was not to pay the union members their longevity the way it was calculated in the contract. The town leaders thought that they would win many benefits back by just taking us to arbitration. The town and the union have a very good relationship now. This would be our first major victory. We went to the town leaders to rectify the situation but the administrators would not negotiate anything but what they thought the contract said. Since 1993, I have been either on the executive board or vice president of the union and received experience in grievances, arbitration and negotiations. No one gets upset, argues, or screams for the most part we tend to hash out our disagreements through talks, and if one side is feeling a little uptight, the talks are called off for another day. They would soon find out that the firefighters union was in no position to just give benefits back to the town. We learned from the past and try to work issues out before going to arbitration. The raise was the last item left that would make or break the agreement. By the town leaders not taking our advice, we filed a grievance.
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