New York:
The elite units of the New York Police Department will convene on thedepartmental range in the Bronx on Thursday for a preparedness exercisefor an attack like the one in Mumbai in November 2008.
The Mumbai attack has been on the department's radar since soon afterit occurred, when city police officials carried out a tabletopexercise, said Paul J. Browne, the Police Department's chief spokesman.In that exercise, several lessons were learned -- particularly that theforce's Emergency Service Unit, even with its 400 highly trainedofficers, could be stretched thin in an attack that was prolonged andsprawling across several locations at once.
Afterward, officers of the Organized Crime Control Bureau were giventactical training in the use of heavy weapons, including automatic andsemiautomatic machine guns, to spell the Emergency Service Unit in suchan eventuality. A new policy of giving new recruits training tofamiliarize them with such weapons, during their time in the PoliceAcademy, was also implemented as an outgrowth of the post-Mumbaianalysis.
On Thursday, the relevant police units will converge on Rodman's Neck,the department's training facility in the Bronx, for a mock attack at aso-called "tactical village" there, which is set up to resemble anurban locale. Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly will be inattendance to review the performance and brief reporters, who have beeninvited to observe, afterward.
"Commissioner Kelly directed that drills be conducted, so we're prepared in the event of the real thing," Mr. Browne said.
The Fifth Man, and Other Fire Department Issues
For days now, Stephen J. Cassidy, the president of the UniformedFirefighters Association, has been trying to make sense of a letter hereceived on Tuesday from James F. Hanley, the commissioner of thecity's Office of Labor Relations.
A Bloomberg administration spokesman said the Oct. 12 letter wasself-evident: It proclaimed, in its first paragraph, that the FireDepartment was set to reduce staffing at 60 engine companies in thefive boroughs beginning Feb. 1.
But Mr. Cassidy said the "letter is vague."
The letter calls for elimination of the so-called "fifth man" on thoseengines, leaving them with four firefighters. While Mr. Cassidyconsiders this level of staffing a safety hazard, he also said thatchanging a "roster-staffing agreement" for those engine companies couldnot be done unilaterally, but required collective bargaining.
"We think they are in violation of the Taylor Law," Mr. Cassidy said ofcity officials, citing a stipulation of settlement from 1996. "Thetruth is we are perplexed they have sent us a letter that implies theydon't have to negotiate with us when we know they do have to."
Questioned about this matter, Jason Post, a spokesman for Mayor MichaelR. Bloomberg, said in an e-mail message that "this issue has beenlitigated and resolved -- the city has every right to do this."
In addition, Mr. Post said the staffing cutback was included in theBloomberg administration's budget for the 2011 fiscal year, adopted bythe City Council in June, to save an estimated $30 million annually.
The roster-staffing agreement is a contract provision that allows foraffected engine companies to have five firefighters per shift, asopposed to 134 of the department's engine companies that are staffedwith four firefighters per shift. Keeping a fifth firefighter on thoseengines was usually done via overtime pay.
Cutting the "fifth man" would save money, but it would also presentFire Department management with a thorny problem. For years, theprovision has given departmental leaders a hammer against what theyperceived as sick leave abuses. The brass is entitled to reducestaffing on engine companies whenever the average number offirefighters on medical leave citywide reached a certain percentageover a 12-month period.
In fact, the punishment was carried out four times in the last sevenyears, including once last August -- when the medical leave forfirefighters exceeded 7.5 percent for the preceding 365-day period.
Now, since the city says there will be no more fifth man on the selectengine companies, there is no more lucrative assignment to take away ifthe firefighters' sick leave numbers rise to a point that managementdeems unacceptably high. So the department has come up with a newpunishment for sick leave abuses, officials said.
That is where the rest of Mr. Hanley's letter to Mr. Cassidy comes in.
The new punishment, as outlined in the letter, strikes at the heart ofanother valued perquisite -- but one not mandated contractually: the"24-hour mutual privilege."
Essentially, the punishment would bar firefighters from stacking uptheir shifts so that they can work 24 hours in a row -- and reduce thenumber of days each week on which they have to appear for work.
"Following expiration of the Roster Staffing Agreement by its terms,the city presently intends to implement a policy that provides the FireDepartment with the discretion to suspend the 24-hour mutual privilegeto meet operational needs if the average medical leave for firefightersexceeds 7.5 percent for the preceding 365 day period," Mr. Hanleywrote. "Medical leave will be reviewed on the first day of the month,and the suspicion of 24-hour mutuals will commence on the second day ofthe month if the medical leave is over 7.5 percent. The suspension willremain in effect until the next review is conducted on the first day ofthe next month."
Firefighters cherish these mutual privilege shifts.
Typically, firefighters are assigned to carry out their weekly workhours in two 9-hour day shifts and two 15-hour night shifts. But theyoften trade shifts with one another so that they work 24 hours in a rowtwice each week.
Mr. Cassidy said he could not even address the second part of Mr. Hanley's letter.
He said he was open to negotiations, should the city initiate them, buthe reiterated his commitment to having the engines staffedappropriately.
"A five-man engine company puts water on a fire twice as fast as afour-man engine company," he said. "In the old days, the New York CityFire Department used to think that meant something."