Assignment 1In any company in order to be successful employees need to be productive and efficient. Employees need to be disciplined to ensure that they can help the organization meet or exceed its goals. In the case of James the firefighter, as the arbitrator, I felt that the department acted appropriately in terminating James. Every organization has it policies and rules that must be followed. The City of Coral Springs, FL had a collective bargaining agreement with the International Association of Fire Fighters. The collective bargaining included the terms and condition between the city and the firefighters that they must follow. However, James who is a firefighter for the Westside Fire District blatantly disregarded authority of the agreement. The agreement or contract clearly states that they have a “progressive discipline policy” and does not tolerate employees acting inappropriately or performing below their expectations.
The FLF was founded in 1978 and there are 1,927 members in the Florida State Firefighting Commission. In 2005 FLF made its own decision regarding the termination of a firefighter. In the interim the fire commissioner found that James violated the FLF’s collective bargaining with all of his personal members and therefore, fired James without notice. However, they did not offer any formal apology and neither did any disciplinary action taken against James, even though James did not seem to know that he was losing his job or he and his colleagues had been terminated. However, there was no formal disciplinary action taken at the time against James, or any of his colleagues, even though I would not have believed that his behavior was a mistake at all! After the incident it was announced that James has signed a contract that will serve as a template for the future decision on his successor.
At this point in time we are in the midst of the very sad and unfortunate history of a team of professionals that have once again been terminated from their jobs. James and his crew, including our most experienced and dedicated firefighters, deserve better! But in light of the situation we need that same kind of leadership to take action to stop this fire!
The FLF has a large and loyal fanatical and hard-working membership including approximately 10,000 members in all 50 states. When I spoke to Mike I was informed that Florida’s collective bargaining agreement would soon be updated with additional terms and conditions that give FLF members at a premium a special incentive. It would also give FLF members at a greater advantage and give FLF officers greater authority to conduct fires in areas of the organization they are sworn to protect. I have no problem with this move to allow members to help protect firefighting from fire and emergency response personnel, but I would like to see FLF leaders at the table who believe in their right to protect the community which this bill is about, or rather the firefighters, from their own personal firefighting actions. I hope the FLF can help these individuals change their ways and work toward a sustainable solution to the issues that confront this community and its firefighting members. I know in many ways that the Firefighters Association, or even FLF, is a great and dedicated nonprofit organization. It represents the very people that I wish and hope to represent—the citizens of Florida–and we have all the right to support FLF in that respect. However, if we would only step back and ask ourselves what is the best way forward as a community based organization, if we would instead strive to provide the citizens of FLF with better care, and if we would take the time to work toward the long term goal of providing for FLF members, then the question then should be whether the best way forward would be to seek out organizations such as the FLF and how that can ensure that the FLF members and all FLF members live in a better future.
In this case as an arbitrator, the department of the Westside District had every right in terminating James. James had felt the need to undermine and disrespect any decisions made by the District manager. James has had verbal and written warning about his behavior on different occasions and not wanting to work as a “team player” was unacceptable. He disobeyed the watch commander’s instruction, he was defiant to the company’s policy and authority and he put lives in danger. I feel that the commander had given James the opportunity to correct his behavior but James chose not to. According to the text, to correct an employee behaviors management should indicate what is expected of the employee and what the consequences are when the behavior does not change. (Holley, 2010). I felt that management made James aware of his behavior and that he needed to change it. Unfortunately, he ignored his commander’s orders on changing his behaviors. According to the government agencies such as EEOC and the NLRB shows that employee discipline must