Emmaus Firefighters Try to Unionize

By Jack Tobias

Firefighters in Emmaus are at the beginning stages of trying to unionize.

The borough, meanwhile, believes firefighters are volunteers—not borough employees—and thus should not be allowed to unionize.

Both sides will have a chance to present their arguments at a Jan. 9 hearing before the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board in Harrisburg.

Lindsay Bracale, a press aide with the state Department of Labor & Industry, confirmed the date of the labor board hearing. It will begin at 10 a.m. in hearing room 3 in the North Office Building in the state capital.

A statewide group called the Pennsylvania Fire Fighters Association, which represents paid firefighters in Allentown, Bethlehem and Easton among other municipalities, filed a petition Oct. 24 with the labor board, requesting permission to represent 27 Emmaus firefighters in collective bargaining with the borough.

In the petition, the association says it is seeking to represent "all full-time and regular part-time firefighters employed in the fire department, including deputy chief."

The association's petition does not cover "office clericals, guards and supervisors."

The petition includes the name of association president Art Martynuska and was submitted by Stephen C. Richman, an attorney with offices in center city Philadelphia, at 121 N. Cedar Crest Blvd. in South Whitehall, and in Haddonfield, N.J., and New York City.

Martynuska could not be reached for comment. Patch sent an email to Richman, who did not respond in time for this posting.

In Emmaus:

—The borough already pays some salaries and benefits to fire department personnel. It also provides stipends to encourage volunteer participation. According to 2011 figures provided by the borough, Emmaus paid $423,411 for fire operations, plus $321,581 in salaries and benefits for a total contribution of $744,992. That came to 8.5 percent of the $8.68 million general fund budget.

—Borough council has introduced a proposed ordinance that would apply to fire department operations.

—The borough gets state aid for fire department operations in the form of a "foreign fire" tax. The word "foreign" refers to out-of-state companies that provide insurance to in-state properties.

—The borough website says of fire operations: "The Fire Department’s staff is comprised of paid on-call volunteers who respond, on average, [to] 375-400 calls per year. Calls include fire protection, rescue/extrication and HAZMAT response, and are dispatched via Lehigh County’s 911 Communications Center." The website also says borough fire chief James Reiss, "a 31-year department veteran, ... oversees 42 volunteer firefighting professionals, comprised of duty crews, standby drivers and crews available 24/7, 365 days a year.

—The fire fighters association, according to its website, represents more than 10,000 paid professional firefighters in Pennsylvania. It also represents EMTs and paramedics. The association is a member of the International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF).

Patch posed questions to Emmaus borough manager Shane Pepe on the issue:

Q. What is the borough's position regarding the unionizing of firefighters? Is there one issue that stands out?

A. The Borough's position is that the firefighters in the Borough are meant to be volunteers.  They apparently feel that they are employees.  

One of the issues that stands out is the way that the firefighters are paid. Their position is that they are paid through payroll and therefore should be considered employees. The Borough's position has historically been that they receive their pay stipends through the payroll system and they receive W-2 forms to make life for the firefighter easier, so they don't have to pay taxes on a 1099 form at the end of the year.  It also helps the firefighter with items such as withholdings for child support, etc.  

There are other issues that stand out, however, this is an issue that will be decided by the Labor Relations Board.

Q. Can you confirm the amount that firefighters receive in the borough's annual budget? And how much of that is for stipends? Also, why did the stipends begin and what about the apparent effort to end the stipends?

A. $519,366 is their 2014 budget.... $182,000 is for stipends.

The stipend began several decades ago. The Borough never stated that we were eliminating the stipends.  Borough Council greatly reduced the amount we were paying in last year's budget, just like we cut several positions in the Ambulance Department, Police Department, and Public Works Department.  When they were making budget cuts, they made the cuts to this department as well.  

Part of the reason was because it was legal counsel's opinion that the way the department stipend was being paid did not meet Fair Labor Standard Act requirements.  It had been this way since the 1980s apparently.  The Borough Council felt that we should do things the legal and correct way, which prompted the beginning of the construction of the ordinance.

Q. What prompted the proposed borough ordinance that would apply to firefighters? How are firefighters classified under the proposed ordinance?

A. (Along with the above), there were several areas where Borough Council needed to clean up the current Borough ordinances for the fire department.  The Borough has always held the position that we have a volunteer fire department, which should be held as a separate entity from the Borough Government.  This is how the law works.  

The only professionally paid fire departments in the Lehigh Valley are Easton, Allentown, and Bethlehem City Fire Departments.  Every other department is considered a volunteer department.  

Many of the departments pay stipends to offset costs for the fire departments and provide for some type of incentive for the volunteers, as there is a great amount of training and work that goes into being a firefighter.  Council has always recognized this, as it's not as simple as just picking up a hose and spraying water at a fire.  Council felt that paying a stipend and continuing to pay a stipend is beneficial to the entire community, however, there was never an intention that the firefighters would be employees.

Council has worked with the leadership team of the Fire Department throughout the entire process.  Council was open throughout the process and did everything they possibly could to make sure that the fire department's voice was heard and addressed every single concern legally possible that was voiced by the fire department. The ordinance was formed so that there was very little impact on firefighters. They would still receive stipends and everything else they have ever had. The changes were procedural and structural in terms of how the department operated overall and better defined the department in its relationship with the Borough.  

The ordinance was written to be in line with the vast majority of every other volunteer fire department in Pennsylvania.  The ordinance included free accounting services by the Borough if the department chose.  It included almost every request by the fire department as well.  We spent approximately 9 months working on this ordinance with the department.

Q. What is the Emmaus Firemen's Relief Association and how much does it get each year?

A. The Emmaus Firemen's Relief Association is an organization created that consists of volunteers.  Each year, the Borough receives approximately $80,000 in Foreign Firefighter Tax State Aid from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.  Because it is our position that the Emmaus Fire Department is a volunteer fire department, we give the money to the Firemen's Relief Association every year.  They, in turn, do with it as they please.  

There are guidelines and rules that they must follow under the state laws, however, the money is usually spent on equipment for firefighters, additional vehicles, etc.  If the department were treated as a paid fire department, the Borough would keep the money and use it for the fire department under the same guidelines, only we would be making the decisions with the money rather than the Volunteer Relief Association.