GEORGIA — Six volunteer firefighters say they were fired for raising safety concerns, attempting to unionize and refusing to sign a confidentiality agreement they equate to a gag order.
Town officials did not address those allegations in a statement released Sunday. The statement says only that the confidentiality agreement is part of a new policy intended to limit municipal liability by preventing volunteer firefighters from sharing potentially confidential images or information from the scene of an emergency through social media or other channels.
Firefighters shared “personal and confidential information on social media,” according to the statement. Officials did not provide more detail.
The fired firefighters say they support the agreement’s intent, but the language is overly broad and would prevent them from discussing their work for the department even in private conversations without the chief’s authorization.
“The way it’s worded we couldn’t engage in any group activity, even if it’s just discussing safety issues,” said Chris Gonyeau, one of the terminated firefighters and a former department chief.
A copy of the agreement is included at the bottom of this article.
Town Administrator Michael McCarthy informed the firefighters of their dismissal in a letter sent earlier this month. It was a tense scene last Friday at the town clerk’s office as Gonyeau and others turned in their gear and filed paperwork appealing their terminations to the selectboard.
Prior to to the six firings, Georgia had 30 volunteer firefighters who are paid an hourly wage to respond to emergency calls and participate in first responder and firefighter trainings. McCarthy estimated the department receives 150 emergency calls per year.
McCarthy refused to discuss the firings, but he was adamant they won’t impact public safety.
Georgia, like many other small towns, relies on mutual aid from surrounding municipalities to respond to fires and other emergencies in addition to its own fire department, McCarthy said.
Gonyeau was less sanguine. He said that the departure of so many firefighters could impact response times, especially during the day when fewer volunteers respond to calls.
Heather Grimm, one of the dismissed firefighters, said the broad language of the agreement gave her and several colleagues pause when they were first asked to sign it last September.
Grimm said when fire department officers asked firefighters to sign the agreement, she and several colleagues had been raising safety concerns for close to a year. Specifically, she said they had asked about the adequacy of the department’s primary emergency response vehicle.
When disciplinary hearings began in January for Grimm and her colleagues for their refusal to sign the agreement, she said they began exploring the possibility of forming a union to collectively bargain with the town.
Town officials say the firefighters’ refusal to sign the agreement amounted to misconduct and insubordination. The selectboard authorized McCarthy to handle the matter, and earlier this month he sent letters to Grimm and the others informing them of their termination.
Grimm said she believes the confidentiality agreement and the firings are retaliation for raising questions about the safety of the department vehicle and then attempting to unionize.
The firefighters have an attorney and are in the process of filing a grievance with the state labor relations board, Grimm said.
The town did not address any of Grimm’s allegations directly in their statement, but they denied firings were retaliatory through their attorney Joseph McLean.
“I don’t agree with their description of the rationale for the personnel action,” McLean said in a phone conversation Friday. The town’s statement, sent by McLean, says the selectboard is “reserving judgement” on the question of unionization until it has more information.
The Milton Independent has reported that the language of the agreement was taken from an agreement used by St. Albans Town. Georgia Fire Chief Keith Baker told the paper that the Williston Fire Department, where he works full-time, has a similar policy in place. Baker did not return multiple calls seeking comment.
The Vermont League of Cities and Towns, which insures many volunteer fire departments, said it was not aware of social media oriented confidentiality agreements or volunteer fire departments attempting to unionize.
Baker and Don Turner, a state representative and chief of Milton’s volunteer fire department, told the Independent in October that unauthorized posts on social media by volunteer firefighters in other towns led, in one case, to a relative learning a loved one died from an accident photo, and in another case, an insurance company refused to pay a claim after seeing pictures. Turner said the Milton Fire Department uses a similar agreement.
Chief Baker told the Milton Independent that he believed the agreement was necessary because he saw firefighters posting inaccurate information about emergency calls on social media.
“It wasn’t horrible, it just wasn’t exactly what happened,” Baker told the Independent.
Burlington Fire Lt. Ben O’Brien said Burlington does have a social media policy, which is currently being updated, but Burlington firefighters are not required to sign any type of confidentiality agreement.
Much of what firefighters observe responding to emergency calls is confidential patient information protected by the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA), which firefighters are trained to follow, O’Brien said.
O’Brien is the president of the Professional Fire Fighters of Vermont, a union that represents full-time firefighters. He said he’s never heard of volunteers trying to organize a union in Vermont.
On Friday when Grimm, Gonyeau and others returned their firefighting gear to the town offices, they were accompanied by family friends and about half a dozen labor organizers, some from the Vermont Workers Center.
Heather Riemer, a union organizer for the Vermont chapter of the American Federation of Teachers, was holding a sign that read “no retaliation for whistleblowers.” Riemer said the firings were related to firefighters’ asking questions about safety.
Gonyeau, a respiratory therapist, said he makes less than $500 annually as a volunteer firefighter, but he takes the job seriously and said he and his fired colleagues were dedicated to protecting their community.
Gonyeau has served with the Georgia Fire Department for 25 years. He said it will be emotionally difficult not be a part of that anymore. Grimm has no other full time occupation, but said she does other volunteer work in the community.
She runs the department’s school fire prevention program. “The kids all know me as firefighter Heather,” Grimm said. She too said it would be hard to move on after 16 years with the department.
“It’s more in our hearts than it is a job,” Grimm said. That was evident for Brittany Bull, 23, one of the terminated firefighters who burst into tears leaving the clerk’s office after returning her helmet and uniform. She was a firefighter for more than a year, but spent years before that hanging around the department.
Gonyeau expressed frustration that between initial conversations around their concerns with the confidentiality agreement last fall and the start of disciplinary hearings in January, he heard nothing from Chief Baker.
Asked if he approached Baker during that time, Gonyeau said that he was waiting for some official communication from his department head. Gonyeau said he and Baker don’t talk about fire department business outside meetings or written communications.
He and Baker grew up in Georgia and have known each other since childhood.
“We definitely were (friends) before. I’m not sure that we are anymore,” Gonyeau said.
Gonyeau appeared frustrated with McCarthy Friday when he said the firefighters would need to make arrangements to return personal items still at the fire department. He asked McCarthy why they couldn’t use the town’s master key and retrieve the items from the fire department, about 1,000 feet from the clerk’s office.
McCarthy said it wouldn’t be possible at that time. Gonyeau sighed and relented. Among the items he asked to be returned was a scrap book that he said contained 20 years of news clippings and other ephemera from a career as a volunteer firefighter.
