CUMBERLAND — Allegany County officials on Friday said members of a local union undermined EMS volunteer efforts.
The union said they haven’t discouraged volunteers, but asked their own members not to undercut career positions.
The county and IAFF Local 1715 since May have disagreed over how to handle a $2 million budget deficit at the Department of Emergency Services.
At that time, the union proposed a public safety tax that would cost the average homeowner $6 per month and generate roughly $2.4 million in revenue.
County officials refused the idea and instead laid off six EMS crew members.
On Friday, county officials said they were made aware of an Aug. 11 letter circulating at local fire and EMS stations “urging members to not volunteer at stations” during critical times.
“It appears that this request is being made in order to justify future staffing levels with Allegany County EMS,” county officials said via press release.
“This letter was penned by (International Association of Fire Fighters) Local 203 at the urging of IAFF Local 1715,” they said. “This information has been provided by several different sources.”
At a county commissioners meeting Thursday, Steve Corioni, president of Allegany County IAFF Local 1715, said the union supports volunteerism, but cautioned that more regular paid staffers are needed to adequately cover emergency calls.
“It’s gonna hurt the community,” Corioni said at that time.
Friday’s release stated IAFF 1715 had requested that its members refrain from volunteering at various local volunteer departments that provide EMS and “further requested that IAFF 203 members refrain from working part time” for the county.
“While Corioni has accused the commissioners of engaging in reckless budget cuts, IAFF 1715’s actions intentionally sabotaging volunteer efforts is outrageously irresponsible and likely a breach of the ethical responsibilities that its members hold as licensed EMTs and paramedics,” county officials said.
“When we began examining budget cuts, we approached this in a manner that would allow us to provide service to the most members of the county possible, while cutting down on built-in overtime,” Allegany County Board of Commissioners President David Caporale said via the release.
“We failed to get the union’s buy-in to move forward in that manner, but moved forward in the best way we were able,” he said and called the union “disappointing (and) entirely disingenuous to the communities they serve.”
On Friday, IAFF 1715 Vice President David Crossland responded to the county’s allegations.
The IAFF constitution and by-laws prohibit members from working a secondary job part time as a firefighter, emergency medical services worker, public safety or law enforcement officer, or in a related service, whether in the public or private sector, when the job is within the work jurisdiction of any affiliate or adversely impacts the interests of any affiliate or the IAFF, he said.
“When the county commissioners announced they would be laying off our EMS workers to address their lack of management and budgeting skills, leadership of Local 203, which represents the firefighters of the city of Cumberland, reached out to offer support,” Crossland said.
“During these conversations it was stated that while the commissioners are actively laying off EMS workers, our union members should not volunteer our time to fill the voids in coverage they are creating,” he said. “No union, ever, would advocate its members volunteering to do the work their coworkers were just laid off from doing.”
Crossland said 1715 has “never told a volunteer not to volunteer,” but has asked union members “not to undercut their union brothers and sisters.”
Crossland said the county commissioners appear “more worried about shifting the focus instead of addressing the issues.”
County officials should “provide core services and programs to improve the quality of life for its citizens and other stakeholders like EMS,” Crossland said.