Fire fighters union claims city avoided pay arbitration

Evanston’s fire fighters union held a press conference Tuesday to discuss the city’s recent layoff of three firefighters and paramedics. The three firefighters named, Brendan Collins, Chris Weglarz and Megan Kumarchevakul, are scheduled to be laid off July 31. About 15 members of Evanston’s fire department, Local 742 of the International Association of Fire Fighters, attended the press conference.

Local 742 President, Brian Scott, spoke for the group during the conference. While City Manager Wally Bobkiewicz has the right to fire and hire fire fighters, he said, Bobkiewicz recent layoff decision is a move to “block arbitration through coercion.”

Scott said Bobkiewicz’ move is about more than saving the city money. He said it’s about halting the bargaining process the department goes through to re-negotiate contracts. In the proposed contract, there is a provision requiring the city to debate the contracts with the union. Under the rejected contract, if a conclusion isn’t met in that time frame, then the contract goes into arbitration where an impartial third party would decide the outcome of the contracts-essentially to decide if what the union is asking for is fair, given the city’s means.

The union has filed a complaint with the Illinois Labor Relations Board stating that what Bobkiewicz did was an “unfair labor practice.”

Bobkiewicz declined to comment.– Trevor Seela