Excerpts from ChicagoTribune.com:
Elgin Firefighters Local 439 has taken legal action by filing a motion with the Circuit Court of Cook County Chancery Division, seeking to have an arbitrator's March decision set aside. That ruling had allowed the city to maintain reduced minimum shift staffing levels—down from 36 to 34 firefighters—as it had done since January 2012.
The motion highlights that in December 2011, the city had asked the union to continue with the lower staffing level that had originally been agreed upon in February 2010. However, the union reportedly declined the request at the time.
In October 2013, the union filed a grievance over the staffing changes, and the case was escalated to arbitration in December 2013. Arbitrator Edwin Benn conducted three hearings in 2014 and ultimately ruled in favor of the city this past March, according to the motion.
The motion claims that Arbitrator Benn showed bias or misconduct by failing to make clear credibility determinations, by initially calling the language of the Variance Agreement ambiguous during the hearing but later concluding it was unambiguous in his final decision, by prematurely deciding that the city did not intend to maintain minimum staffing after the agreement expired, and by not fully reviewing all the evidence before making his ruling.
It also argues that Benn overstepped his authority by altering, modifying, and ignoring key parts of the original agreement when he concluded that the city had the right to unilaterally change staffing levels.
The union’s motion criticizes the decision as being against public policy, arbitrary, and capricious. It states that the arbitrator’s award “did not draw its essence from the contract†because it effectively changed the terms of the agreement by allowing the city to adjust staffing without mutual consent.
Since January 2014, Elgin firefighters have been working without a formal contract. Union President and Fire Captain Vince Rychtanek said he expects the issue of the contract to be revisited by an arbitrator this fall, with staffing levels likely to remain a major point of contention.
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