Judge orders East Chicago to give firefighters back their old work shifts

U.S. District Court Judge Philip P. Simon issued a preliminary injunction this week ordering city officials to return the fire department to a schedule of 24 hours on duty followed by 48 hours off duty.

The judge concluded firefighters will likely prove Mayor Anthony Copeland imposed a punishing swing shift schedule on the firefighters in retaliation for their union endorsing his political opponents.

The judge said the firefighters have tentatively proved the mayor was denying the firefighters their First Amendment right to lobby the City Council into siding with the union.

It is a victory for the International Association of Firefighters Local 365, who have been fighting the mayor for two and a half years over better working schedules, pay and benefits.

The judge is giving city officials until April 18 to reinstate the 24-hours-on/48-hours-off schedule for the firefighters.

Mayor Anthony Copeland couldn’t be reached immediately for comment. Attorneys and firefighter union members embroiled in the lawsuit declined immediate comment.

The judge stated in a 29-page opinion that he is returning the city to a 24/48-hour shift because that is the normal work schedule for most of the nation.

It was for East Chicago, too, until 2019, when the mayor imposed a swing shift.

It has required firefighters to be at their duty stations for eight hours on each of three consecutive days, starting an early morning the first day, an afternoon the second day and then an evening shift, before getting their fourth day off.

The judge said the firefighters’ union has been unsuccessful in negotiating better working hours, but the city has denied them a collective bargaining agreement.

The firefighters then went to the City Council to request an ordinance restoring their old work shift in late 2019.

However, the mayor vetoed the ordinance, and his lawyers convinced a panel of state court judges in April 2021 that he, and not the council, had the sole authority to set the firefighters’ work schedules.

The firefighters union then sued the city in U.S. District Court in May 2021, arguing to Judge Philips the mayor’s work schedule violated the union members’ right to free speech and political activity.

The union argues the mayor imposed the swing shift after they supported his opponent, John Aguilera, in the 2019 Democratic primary election.

Although voters reelected Copeland that year to his third term in office, voters also elected six city council candidates supporting the union’s position for their old work schedule and better pay.

The mayor counters that the 2019 swing shift schedule is needed to save city taxpayers the higher costs that the union pay demands would incur.

The judge heard arguments and evidence from the two sides in early October 2021 before ruling this week that the city has offered no financial proof the mayor’s swing shift saves any money.

The judge said the firefighters gave compelling testimony of the harm the swing shift imposes, depriving them of sufficient rest and imposing a nearly impossible burden to finding childcare.

“The new schedule has been deleterious to their health and well-being. Because the schedule changes each day, firefighters cannot get on a normal sleep schedule,” the judge stated.

The judge further said the firefighters proved the swing shift was the mayor’s political payback.

The ruling states firefighters secretly recorded a 2019 meeting between firefighter union President David Mata and now retired Fire Chief Anthony Serna.

The judge states Serna warned the union at the meeting the firefighters could only avoid the swing shift by halting their cooperation with the City Council for higher pay.

The firefighters state their department is now in the bottom half of firefighter pay throughout Northwest Indiana.

Low pay and the swing shift have shrunk the department staffing from 66 to 44 line firefighters, the union argued to the judge.

Judge Simon concluded, “On this record, the firefighters have a high likelihood of success on the (case’s) merits. The harm to the firefighters greatly outweighs any alleged financial harm to East Chicago.”