YOUNGSTOWN — A court gave the firefighters union another victory in its long-standing dispute with the city.

This time, Judge Maureen Sweeney of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court ordered the city Friday to engage in binding arbitration over a grievance that accuses Youngstown of failing to promote firefighters and provide out-of-rank pay.

The city had argued that the firefighters contract requires the union to file grievances within two weeks of an occurrence, and it waited several months to do so — thus making the request invalid.

The union argued that the issue is ongoing and the arbitration request is timely and proper.

In ruling for the union, Sweeney wrote: “Any analysis and determination of timeliness or alleged continuing contractual violations is so potentially intertwined with the factual merits of the dispute that only the arbitrator has jurisdiction to issue a decision on procedural arbitrability disputes.”

Sweeney ordered the city to pay the union’s costs and attorney fees associated with this complaint to compel.

Jon Racco, union president, said: “We are happy the court has ruled in our favor. It’s been our position the whole time, and we look forward to going to arbitration on this matter.”

But Law Director Jeff Limbian said the city will appeal the decision.

“The administration, through the law department, is very concerned that the union inappropriately sidestepped the contractual obligations and the court, the city would argue, may have overstepped its authority or misapplied the law in this particular decision,” Limbian said. “In addition, there was no allowance for the city’s request for a hearing to highlight and argue the city’s position.”

Sweeney wrote that the union’s collective bargaining agreement states that “the grievance and arbitration procedure is the sole method agreed upon by the parties to settle disputes concerning the interpretation, application and administration of the terms of the” contract.

LATEST ARGUMENT

This issue was the latest argument between the two sides on battalion chief positions.

The 7th District Court of Appeals in December 2021 agreed with the union and the State Employment Relations Board that the city illegally retaliated against the fire union when it agreed to provide upgrades to the department’s radio equipment — and then decided to save the money from that expense by eliminating three battalion chief positions through attrition in September 2019.

The appeals court also upheld a common pleas court decision that failing to promote a captain, Chad Manchester, to a vacant battalion chief’s position was contempt of court.

City council in February 2022 voted to restore the three positions, two of which were vacant, to comply with the court.

The city promoted Manchester from captain to battalion chief in March 2022.

But it wasn’t until this past February that the city promoted Tim Frease from captain to battalion chief. Sil Caggiano retired in June 2021 as a battalion chief.

Also, Tommy Gibbs was promoted from lieutenant to captain to fill Frease’s old spot, and Josh McHenry was promoted from firefighter to lieutenant.

The city administration says a position isn’t vacant until Mayor Jamael Tito Brown determines that to be the case because a civil service test has to be conducted and a candidate selected. A test was administered in November.

During the time between Caggiano’s retirement and the appointments, the union contends its members should have been paid for working out of rank and deserve back pay. No one actually worked out of rank, but the union says a battalion chief position should have been established shortly after Caggiano retired and its members are entitled to the additional pay.

About a dozen union members are owed about $100,000, according to the union’s lawsuit.

Because back pay wasn’t granted and the promotion wasn’t timely, the union filed a grievance Aug. 4.

The city denied the grievance Aug. 8 on the claim it was untimely and without addressing its merits.

The union responded Aug. 25 stating the grievance is timely because the city continues to violate the contract “every day that the city refuses to compensate bargaining unit members for time that they should have had in rank through back pay and any other benefits lost as a result of the continuing violation.”

The city again on Sept. 8 denied the grievance contending it was untimely. Four days later, the union said it was going to take the matter to binding arbitration, but the city refused to participate.

The union filed the lawsuit Dec. 19.

Sweeney ruled that the contract has a “broad arbitration clause and the subject matter of the instant grievance is covered by” that clause so the “grievance must be resolved through the agreed upon grievance and arbitration procedure.”

OTHER ISSUES

Over the past four-plus years with Barry Finley as fire chief, the union has filed numerous grievances, unfair labor practices and lawsuits against the city.

The firefighters union filed a lawsuit in June 2022 contending Youngstown officials refused to engage in arbitration after requiring its members who have workplace exposure to COVID-19 to quarantine and use sick time even if they aren’t sick or show any signs of illness.

Also, the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation’s Public Employee Risk Reduction Program issued four health and safety hazard violations in July 2020 against the city for failing to protect firefighters from the COVID-19 pandemic. Those issues were resolved.

The administration has been closing fire stations since June 2020 on a rotating basis because the fire department’s overtime costs are too high. The union has objected, saying the decision is dangerous and the city not filling positions caused the overtime issue.

Finley sent a Friday email to various city officials stating that overtime in his department for this year is $284,123 and was budgeted for $360,000 for the entire year.

Once the $360,000 is reached, Finley wrote that he will grant overtime for firefighters replacing those injured on duty.

“I will check on a case-by-case basis on any other overtime requested, but if not granted, fire station(s) will have to be shut down on a day-by-day basis,” Finley wrote.

The city also closed fire stations on a rotating basis for about three months in 2018 because of overtime costs.

The union issued a no-confidence vote against Finley in December 2019 after expressing concern about his leadership, and the city closed Fire Station No. 7 on the North Side that same month over the objections of the union.

Other problems between April and June 2019 included Finley telling Battalion Chief Charlie Smith, who was the union president at the time, that he would no longer accept grievances from Smith on behalf of the union; the city’s allegation of the union participating in an unauthorized strike; the city filing an unfair labor practice charge related to the alleged unauthorized strike; an arbitration decision in the union’s favor concerning involuntary transfers; and the union filing an unfair labor practice for Finley bringing in outside chiefs instead of battalion chiefs to cover for him when he wasn’t in the city, according to court documents.

The issues have continued since Racco took over as union president in January 2022.