On Sunday (Super Bowl day) the Atlanta Fire Department experienced a staffing shortfall that resulted in the temporary closure of five fire stations. Contending with a massive budget deficiency, the city closed permanently three fire stations last month and instituted a hiring freeze and a furlough plan that not only left the department shorthanded, but effectively cut the firefighters’ pay by 10% to 18%.
What led to Sunday’s closures was a spike in the number of FF’s who called in sick, more than double the average daily amount. The fact that it happened on the same day that the football championship was being played and televised was not lost on anybody.
Atlanta Professional Fire Fighters Association president Jim Daws commented, “What you’re seeing today is a total unraveling of the fire protection and disaster response scheme in the City of Atlanta. Fires and other emergencies are no respecters of budget shortfalls. They will come when they will, and if Fire Rescue is unprepared to respond, lives and property will be lost. These cuts to Fire Rescue are nothing less than governmental malpractice on the part of Atlanta’s elected officials, and the citizens should not stand for it.”
Fire Chief Kelvin Cochran said he did not know if the increase was some sort of “blue flu” or “political statement,” but said firefighters call in sick more often on a payday weekend with a holiday or a big event like the Super Bowl.
Now we don’t know just how accurate the Chief’s statement is, but there is no disputing the numbers of sick leave calls that were taken that day. “This is just a normal consequence of the budget cuts,” Daws said. “The conditions the city is asking firefighters to work under, plus an 18-percent pay cut, is adding to absenteeism. I’m not surprised absenteeism is up.”
And while the Local president put on his “game face” and made the best of it with his public statement, inside he must be furious not only with the city, but with those firefighters who put their own desire to stay home and watch a television show rather than support their brother firefighters on the job.
There is a very public debate going on between the city administration and the fire and police employee groups. And the firefighters and police officers have the unquestioned high ground in the argument. But when something like this happens, all that good will gets lost and is hard to recover, if at all.
Being close observers of what is going on in the fire and rescue service overall, we can easily grasp what is going on here. But for John Q. Citizen, all he sees is that a large number of firehouses were shut down because a lot of supposedly “dedicated” firefighters turned their back on him just so they could watch a tv show that was undoubtedly being shown in the stations, too.
There is no question that the great majority of the Atlanta firefighters fulfill their obligation and come to work despite the low morale and draconian decisions of city hall. But those few who abandoned their sworn duty to serve have “messed it up” for all the rest of them.
The average citizen, most of whom are unaware of any labor disputes anyway, knows that if someone is being paid to do a job, no matter how well the pay is, then that person has both the legal and moral responsibility to show up. The Atlanta Local has a lot of damage to repair.
And we have to get this equipment checked out. So while you get started with that, I’ll go make some more coffee.
