The standoff continues over random drug and alcohol testing of Boston firefighters. The Department has been under scrutiny since two firefighters were killed in a blaze last year and were later found to have been under the influence. The city’s firefighters union wants the testing to be part of stalled contract talks. Critics say the testing will improve public safety. Should there be random drug testing of all firefighters?
.
Listen to the full show:
Plus, in our web specials:A new report calls for random drug and alcohol testing in all Massachusetts fire departments
Radio Boston: Firefighters Under Fire in Random Drug Testing Debate
Airdate: January 18, 2008
- Guests:
Edward Kelly, President of Boston Firefighters Union Local 718
Kenneth Willette, Chief of the Concord, MA Fire Departmentand President of the Fire Chiefs’ Association of Massachusetts
Samuel Tyler, President of the Boston Municipal Research Bureau
Web Specials:
The battle between the City of Boston and the Boston Firefighters Union has, at this point, no immediate end in sight. Into the fray comes the Boston Municipal Research Bureau, and its new report: Time for Drug Testing for Firefighters.
One novel solution it proposes: "Drug testing should be a state public safety requirement and should be made exempt from collective bargaining."
Read the report, and add your comments and reactions to this Radio Boston post.
Now that the ground has thawed let’s go on an archaeological dig. What are some of the latest big local discoveries? What do historical artifacts teach us about our past?
I have a commercial driver’s license (required for driving heavy trucks), and as a federal requirement, I am in a random drug testing pool (illegal drugs are obviously illegal, alcohol is a problem if you test positive for it while on duty). The justification for this regulation is that driving a truck is a “safety-sensitive position”. If your CDL includes an endorsement allowing you to haul Hazardous Cargo, in addition to the random drug testing, you must also submit fingerprints and undergo a background check (at your own expense, no less). Interestingly, government/municipal employees are specifically exempted from needing CDL’s to drive heavy vehicles, and are thus not subject to these regulations. I would suggest that the position of firefighter is no less “safety-sensitive” than the job of delivering gravel. I consider myself a libertarian, and am always skeptical of government intrusion into privacy or constitutional rights, but if a regulation is to be applied it should at least be applied consistently.
We recieved this email from Chokdee:
It is ridiculous to ask for a raise to accept drug testing. Firefighters are public servants. If they rush into a burning building drunk or high, they not only risk their lives but the lives of their fellow firefighters and the public.
Asking for a raise for drug testing is like me asking for a raise so I show up to work on time or asking the cops to give me some token for not speeding.
This is simply stupid. Drug testing for ALL public servants who interact with the public should be mandatory: cops, firefighters, state university and school employees, etc.
I worked for UMass Boston for 11 years and was surprised I was never tested once.
Shawn sent Radio Boston this email:
As a longtime resident of the city of Boston, I would like to support the firefighters’ union in their negotiations. However, in my years of walking Boston city streets, I have had many occasions to observe that firefighters readily display a hostile and arrogant attitude toward ordinary people in the city. I’ve been verbally harassed as I walked past the firehouse on Hanover St.; I am regularly pushed off the sidewalk by the fire trucks, or even the personal vehicles, of the firefighters on Cambridge St., who arrogantly choose to park completely across the sidewalk there, for other apparent purpose than to demonstrate their sense of superiority and arrogant entitlement. The constant campaign of self-laudatory statements by the fire department in the media is no help, either. The firefighters of the city need to stop admiring themselves the mirror and playing the victim and pretending they’re martyrs. Everyone has a job. The firefighters need to start noticing there’s a whole city full of people out here, and we also have jobs and lives and yes, we even take risks. Firefighters are not gods or saints and do not deserve to lord their special status over people making a fraction of their ridiculously inflated salaries.
Here’s what Dan had to say about our show. He sent this email:
This discussion astonishes me. This is nothing but extortion; why can’t the union just do the right thing? This is exactly why unions have the reputation they do. In any other industry, these guys would be laughed at; they’re only out for themselves, not the public’s or their own safety.
We recieved this email from Morgaine:
As my favorite politics professor in College would say, “there are two things you never want to see being made; politics and sausage”
This is age old politics, and the people of Boston are just upset about it because it has been brought to the forefront. I’m not sure that the union should have to justify a pay raise with anything other than they should take any and every opportunity to increase the
working lives for their members.
Another email, this one from Peter in Framingham:
Why should the Mayor’s office get away with forcing fire fighters to undergo random drug tests when they are not allowed to test an employee with a felony drug conviction under the Americans with Disabilities Act as long as
that employee claims to be “in recovery”? In fact, under the ADA, they have to make “reasonable accommodations” for a drug addicted employee that they would probably never give to a fire fighter.
“McOady” from Woburn sent us this email:
“There is Federal Law that says that anyone driving a vehicle over 26 thousand pounds needs to have a CDL license and subject to random drug testing. Since fire vehicles are well over that, why aren’t they held to the same standard? As someone who had siblings and uncles that were firefighters and policemen, I find it very sad that the recent contracts given to firefighters are so full of unnecessary perks that the tax payers pay for.
This new era of entitlement has turned the fire departments from a brotherhood into a gang.
Woburn, MA”
Another Email, this one from Eve Sullivan:
“Dear Mr. Boeri,
You owe it to your listeners and to those
who suffer from addictions to use the
phrase ‘alcohol and other drugs.’
Alcohol is a drug, obviously, and is the
most widely mis-used, abused drug.
Thank you!!
Eve Sullivan”
An impassioned email from Worcester:
“It is beyond credulity of an educated person to believe that the firefighters have a leg to stand on. I cannot imagine firefighters going into a building with a colleague who is intoxicated and depending on them with their lives. It makes a sham of the brotherhood that they talk about, and makes it seem like an out of control fraternity. The few offenders have tainted the entire profession. They have advertised themselves as being the ones to save our loved ones during an emergency, and now what should we think when something does not turn out well. What about the cost of worker’s comp and even more, death benefits on the job because someone was under the influence.
Where is their shame? If they have been unable to prevent this, they cannot really expect the public to stand idly by. They must think the public is stupid.
Gary Wolf
Worcester”