JACKSON HOLE, WYO – A decision by Judge John G. Fenn of the Ninth District Court ruled against the IAFF (International Association of Firefighters) Local Union 5067, saying that the union formed two years ago was not a recognized legal entity without including volunteer members of the department.
Fenn was assigned the case early this year after judgments were filed in December 2016. The magistrate made the same finding in a similar case out of Campbell County that ran concurrent with plaintiff Local 5067’s case.
What it means is, Local 5067 president John Tobey will either have to represent all firefighters—including seven part-timers and 79 volunteers—and not just the 18 full-time career employees of Jackson-Teton County Fire /EMS. At the time the union organized in November 2015, 14 of the 18 fulltime members agreed to join.
The chief argument of Local 5067 was that career firefighters and volunteers do not have the “same community of interest.”
Fenn agreed that while there may be differences in what a fulltime firefighter and a volunteer are looking for, “the Court is tasked with applying the statute as written, and it is not the job Court’s job to question the wisdom of the statute or to rewrite the statute under the guise of interpretation.”
Volunteers had to be included in the union, the court said, because, in Teton County/Jackson, they are paid. They are no different than paid part-time employees and thus the same as fulltime paid employees, the court ruled.
Representatives of Local 5067 are considering an appeal.
Backdraft
With a newly formed fire department union and town/county reps on the brink of an agreement during collective bargaining talks last year, the proceedings suddenly fell apart. It wasn’t a single sticking point or bargaining chip gone sour, it was the entity the town/county was looking across the table at. They said they believed Local 5067 was an illegally formed union and walked away from the table.
County attorney Keith Gingery was first made aware of potential legal issues when then-fire chief Willy Watsabaugh showed him an article in the Gillette News Record concerning firefighters unionizing there. After consulting with the state attorney general’s office, Gingery advised town and county leaders that even though they were close to an agreement with Local 5067, they should consider breaking off talks until matters were better defined by Wyoming courts—likely as a result of lawsuits.
Town and county officials insisted at the time they were fairly pleased with where negotiations were headed on a new two-year contract with Local 5067, they simply worried that any agreement struck with the union could come back to bite everyone should the pool of volunteer firefighters decide to challenge the contract or should the case in Campbell County confirm Local 5067 was not legally formed.
In a subsequent ruling, Audrey-Cohen Davis argued that the town could serve as the sole representative when dealing with the union and did not need county reps at the table.
Fenn disagreed. “[T]he Town of Jackson is not the appropriate corporate authority because it does not have the authority to ‘establish wages, salaries, rates of pay, working conditions, and other conditions of employment for fire fighters…”
