Firefighters should be fighting fires, not state union bureaucrats

What happens when one union wants to leave another?

Firefighters in New Havenare finding out — and the process has led to a lawsuit filed just a few months ago.

As the Executive Board of New Haven’s firefighters’ local union — International Association of Fire Firefighters, Local 825 — we are confident that local unions do valuable work on behalf of their members and their community. However, we are not afraid to change course when there are better and more effective ways to serve our membership.

In 2016, after a thorough review of our union’s finances, we voted unanimously to dissolve our relationship with the state firefighters’ union — the Uniform Professional Fire Fighters Association of Connecticut (UPFFA).

We needed to put our financial house in order and the UPFFA’s legislative services were an expensive and unnecessary line item. Simply put, we did not find value in the services they were claiming to provide.

Unfortunately, the UPFFA’s leaders refused to honor our choice to cut ties.

Instead, they’ve demanded payment of membership dues since 2016, more than $52,000, which we do not owe. They are trying to pick local firefighters’ pockets for services we don’t want or need.

This executive board never wanted to make this a public issue. We tried to resolve this internally, and even asked for help from the national firefighters’ union to resolve this dispute. During this process, we uncovered that in addition to not providing value, the UPFFA had also betrayed our trust.

The UPFFA admitted to using our past legislative only dues money for general expenses and to support other unions, rather than using it represent firefighters’ legislative interests at the state capitol, for which it was intended.

Adding insult to injury, these state union bureaucrats hired collections agents to twist our arms into paying up. Not a chance.

As a last resort, we have been forced to file a lawsuit, with the help of the Fairness Center — a nonprofit law firm that represents those hurt by public sector union officials—and local counsel. We are asking the court to reaffirm our disassociation from the UPFFA and to bar it from collecting membership dues to which it is not entitled. We are also seeking the return of our misappropriated funds, which we estimate to be at least $96,000.

Often, public safety unions are one of the only dissenting voices on public policy. They serve as a de facto check and balance when politicians place politics above public safety.

Two years ago, we ended our UPFFA membership and chose to represent our own members before the state legislature, and we are better off for it. We are viewed as pragmatic issue advocates without partisan influence. Saving lives is a non-partisan issue, and saving lives is our purpose in serving the New Haven community.

Firefighters place the community’s safety ahead of their own every day. We should be fighting fires, not state union bureaucrats. The UPFFA forced our hand, and we had no choice but to ask the court to intervene. We are confident that our position will be vindicated.

The UPFFA must recognize that as Americans, we are free to associate with those who value our views, and to disassociate from those who don’t.