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Friday, June 11, 2010

Halifax firefighter union pulled commercials under threat of disciplinary action

Memo speaks of conflict between firefighters

Posted by Tim Bousquet on Fri, Jun 11, 2010 at 3:02 PM

Last week, as theChronicle-Herald reported, the Halifax firefighter union was preparing to air commercials to protest the Fire Department's plan for rolling temporary closures of four fire stations: King Street in Dartmouth, Lady Hammond Road in Halifax, Bedford station and Upper Sackville.

But those commercials never ran.

“All I can say is that we’ve been directed not to proceed airing the commercials, and failure to comply may result in disciplinary action," says union spokesperson Chris Camp. "We’ve been advised by our lawyer not to say anything else.”

The commercials, which were to air on CTV, were made after a union meeting held last Wednesday night, in which a "lack of respect to our members by management" was a main topic of discussion, according to a memo sent out by the union last Thursday.

The memo also faults some firefighters for working with management and against the union's best interests:

When we have members making deals with management to go into special projects or positions, members who do not stand up and support their co-workers when they deserve and need it, and members calling a platoon chief for special favours which negatively affects others we all suffer. These are only a few problems created by the minority of members but it makes us all weak.

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Comments (5)

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The union bashing people would be the first to complain when their houses burn into the basement because the change to minimum wage for firefighters means they are short-staffed. You can't please some people.

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Posted by voice_of_reason on June 13, 2010 at 4:06 AM

so much for freedom of expression. what's up with HRM, first using the supreme court to intimidate and silence public criticism, now threatening to discipline it's employee into silence.
Obviously something to hide.

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Posted by triplex on June 12, 2010 at 3:55 PM

http://halifax.ca/budget/documents/2010-11…

go to page 148 or H18 to see what is says about possible station closures.

this should clear up a few issues of who said what, can't believe Mosher and Thurber would put some puffed up chief of public relations on the air and instruct him to mislead the taxpayers of HRM. What's next?

oh and what's up with the union bashing.... disgruntled citizens who couldn't meet HRM fires tough recruitment standards, sounds like to me.

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Posted by say_it_isn't_so on June 12, 2010 at 1:16 PM

Oops, looks like the union is not in charge of the department.
We need an inquiry.
Downtrodden workers under the heel of management.
Judge Oliphant is available, I'll call him first thing on Monday.

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Posted by Joeblow on June 12, 2010 at 12:49 AM

The very definition of a militant public sector union that should be legislated out of existence. God forbid that they put the needs of the people they work for ahead of their own egos and greed.

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Posted by Bo Gus on June 11, 2010 at 6:22 PM

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