Ocean city and firefighters union still at odds

More than 100 people showed up Monday night at the Ocean City town council meeting, to show their support for Ocean City fire fighters and paramedics. This coming less than a week after the town and the Ocean City Fire Fighters union were unable to reach a new contract.

The reason it wasn’t reached, the two sides disagree on how long work shifts should be for paramedics. Currently first responders work 24-hour shifts followed by three days off. The town wants to change that a schedule where they would work rotating 12-hour shifts. 

“The 24/72 shift has been in play for over 20 years, many, many lives have been saved on that rotation,” said Ryan Whittington, president of the union. “What they’re proposing is a drastic schedule change that would affect the lives of our firefighter paramedics.”

The town argues that the long shifts cause fatigue and may have led to slower response times, and missed calls. Mayor Rick Meehan added that recent hires already knew shorter shifts were a possibility. 

“Really we started this discussion during the last contract negotiations three years ago when we put a provision in there that all new hires would be subject to shifts less than 24 hours,” Meehan said. 

The contentious moment Monday came when  fire chief Chris Larmore, who sides with the town on the matter, spoke. 

Whittington said it was the first time they’ve heard from the chief since contract talks broke down, and he did so with his back to them, instead of speaking from the podium as others did.

Whittington said this is indicative of the level of communication between Larmore and his staff. 

“When our fire chief sat with his back to us that shows a sign of complete disrespect as our leader you should be in the front, you should be talking looking at your people,” Whittington said. 

Larmore left the meeting before 47 ABC was able to speak with him. 

As for the road ahead, Meehan said the town is willing to hear suggestions for alternate schedules this Friday during the town’s labor management committee meeting. 

“Right now its 12 hours, maybe it’s a combination of 10’s and 14’s, maybe it’s something else. There’s a lot of areas that use different combinations. We’re certainly willing to work with them on that to establish the best shift possible for our employees and our citizens,” Meehan said. 

As it stands now, the 12-hour shifts will start in 2017 to allow the department time to adjust to the new schedule.