CCFD Board President: 'Firefighters Union Determined to Implode CCFD With Scorched Earth Terrorist Attack!'

The following is a statement provided to Patch on behalf of Central Coventry Fire District Board President Fred Gralinski Wednesday evening. It is in response to a firefighters' union statement released earlier that day, which can be found, here.

In a flurry of legal pleadings, the Union that represents the Central Coventry Firefighters, seeks to force the taxpayers of the District to fund a labor contract the taxpayers outright rejected. The cost of the Union contract (if fully-funded) is $7.2 million per year. The Union is seeking to use legal processes, in Superior Court, at the State Labor Relations Board and, apparently through the RI Attorney General’s Office, because the voters said “NO”.

The Union says it’s important to “preserve the arbitral process”. They say the Board doesn’t have competency. They’re WRONG.

The Board members were elected by the voters, they represent the taxpayers. The taxpayers know what’s going on here. They know the Union is trying to bully them into paying a bill they do not want to pay. The Union’s actions are a kind of legal extortion. 

Sure, the Union has the right to go to court… but what they really want is for the Board to roll over and give up. Running to court costs everyone more money. It is a Union tactic to force the Board into court and then complain the Board is spending money to defend the Union’s court filings. The taxpayers know these tactics and they’re tired of them.

The taxpayers have the right to decide what services they want and how much they’re willing to pay for those services. The Union speaks for the firefighters. They’re trying to enforce a contract that a crony board executed and that voters have said for over one year (and four attempts to pass a budget) they will not support.