Edison IAFF Local 1197 Sued By Member for Race Discrimination
A black firefighter in Edison, New Jersey is suing his union for race discrimination over a grievance filed on behalf of two white firefighters that adversely affected him.
Anthoney Robinson, 51, claims that his date of hire was changed without his knowledge as a result of a grievance filed by Edison Firefighters, IAFF Local 1197. The union claims his date of hire was properly adjusted from June 2005 to January 2007 because he was laid off soon after being hired in June, 2005, and rehired in 2007.
IAFF Local 1197 President Robert Yackel was quoted by MyCentralJersey.com as saying “You can’t have two years when you’re not here.”
The suit was filed in Superior Court for Middlesex County. It names IAFF Local 1197 as the defendant, but does not name the city or the fire chief. The complaint is not available as of this posting. Here is more on the story.
First time I’ve ever heard a FF suing his Union Local over his start date and senority on the job.
In my agency, if you work for one or more fire seasons ( on average five months) you accumulate the “points” of service credit, but your pension payments stop.
If you get hired in a “permanent position” and you’ve worked three , five month periods, you bring those 15 points with you and your pension contributions resume.
If you withdrew them, you can repay into the pension system over the years to fill out you 15 months contributions.
It would seem that FF Anthony Robinson’s issue is more with FD more than the Union.
He was for the City and if he was laid off for two years, then, he has neither the senority for that time in the classification, nor the pension contributions during that time.