IBEW Local 197 Member/Bloomington Alderman refuses to cross Firefighter picket lines to attend meeting

Tuesday, November 9, 2004

Councilmen honor picket line

By M.K. Guetersloh
mkguetersloh@pantagraph.com
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BLOOMINGTON -- The Bloomington firefighters' union has agreed to talk after offers from three alderman -- two of whom missed Monday's council meeting because they refused to cross an informational picket line.

Instead, aldermen Mike Matejka and Tom Whalen looked at City Hall from the lawn at the McLean County Chamber of Commerce building.

Whalen and Matejka both are members of Laborers Local 362.

Members of the International Association of Fire Fighters Local 49 picketed the meeting as part of their on-going dispute with Fire Chief Keith Ranney and his promotion of two deputy chiefs.

"I have never crossed a picket line in my life," Whalen said. "It means too much to me."

Matejka added, "I was raised not to cross picket lines."

But Whalen said he was frustrated at the union for distributing a flyer claiming the union has not received any response from the council in trying to resolve the dispute.

Whalen said he and Alderman Mike Sprague talked with union representatives this spring after the council was sent a letter from the union outlining its discontent with Ranney.

Matejka also met separately will union leaders.

"The best I can do is try to facilitate a dialogue between the city and the firefighters."

Because of the picket, union President Dave Talley said, the union has agreed to offers by Whalen, Matejka and Sprague to sit down and talk.

"It looks like we will be able to get a meeting scheduled within the next week or two," Talley said. "Hopefully we can get back to interest-based bargaining and get started negotiating in a way that works to everyone's best interest."

The union picketed City Hall in early October, but Talley said Monday's picket accomplished more in the way of talking to city officials.

"We made a bigger point today perhaps because a couple of members were not able to go to the meeting," Talley said.

The union claims the promotion of one of the deputy chiefs initially to assistant chief violated the police and fire commission's rules of promotion. The police and fire commission has authority to make promotions up to assistant chief.

This summer, that assistant chief was promoted to deputy chief, a position outside of the commission's authority. The union had filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of 12 fire captains who would have been eligible for promotion to assistant chief.

Alderman Rich Veitengruber, a member of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 197, did not attend the council meeting. It wasn't clear whether he was absent for personal reasons or because of the picket line.

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