LETTER: Firefighters should be paid for working extra hours

Once again Lancaster Newspapers and the Rick Gray administration fabricate information to defame the city firefighters.

Let’s look back a few short months ago, shall we?

Remember that whole kerfuffle with Manheim Township, and the alleged “harassment” of volunteer firefighters by city firefighters? Remember when Rick Gray said he was planning a lawsuit against the firefighters union?

What ever happened to that? No one has been disciplined, no lawsuits have been filed… the story just vanished into thin air.

Why?

Because it was all HOT AIR from Rick Gray and Tim Gregg. Manheim Township’s firefighters approached MT fire chief Rick Kane and expressed concerns with the staffing and operations of the city fire department. Union firefighters from departments like Prince George’s County (MD) and Washington D.C., who also happen to volunteer at M.T.F.D. said that they were uncomfortable coming to the city and doing the work of the city fire department in a half-assed, under staffed and poorly equipped manner. So M.T.F.D. suspended the mutual aid agreement.

This was certainly a black eye to the Gray administration, and their plans to hack away at the city fire department until there were only 40-45 firefighters on the job. So Rick went to the newspaper and ginned up a false story accusing the city firefighters of misconduct. It didn’t hurt that this story broke while negotiations were taking place between the union and the city over the schedule change. Rick will without doubt try to pull the misconduct card during the upcoming contract arbitration. Mark my words.

Now the newspaper throws out this new story about the firefighters voting “no confidence” in the fire chief…

The irony of this recent newspaper story is that the Union HAS NOT held a “no confidence” vote on Gregg. In fact, the union hasn’t even met on the issue yet. Their next monthly meeting isn’t until Thursday March 10. So unless LNP has some magic ball that lets them see into the future, they are making things up.

And to the Anonymous poster above; It is disturbing to me that people like you reading this website would even suggest that a worker in this country, be it a steel worker, lawyer, teacher, doctor or firefighter should for any reason be made to work for free. The Gray administration has demanded that firefighters adopt a schedule change that would result in firefighters working over 300 hours annually without compensation. We don’t live in China. This is America. When people go to work, they should be paid, not be expected to work almost a full 8 hour day without compensation. Get over your anti-union schtick and think like a reasonable person. You wouldn’t work more than a month for free, why should they?