By RUSS OLIVO

WOONSOCKET — In a pre-emptive strike against Mayor Susan D. Menard’s deficit elimination plan, the firefighters’ union Thursday petitioned for — and won — a Superior Court order prohibiting the city from laying off its members, at least for now.

Judge Richard Israel, a retired member of the judiciary, issued a temporary restraining order pending a full hearing Tuesday, said Edward C. Roy Jr., a lawyer for Local 732 of the International Association of Firefighters. Israel said layoffs without collective bargaining could jeopardize public safety and appear to violate state law, as well as the minimum manning provisions of the city’s contract with the IAFF.
“It was a resounding victory for the firefighters, it was,” said Roy.
Lt. Steve Reilly, IAFF president, said it was not just a victory for firefighters but for “public safety, both for members of the fire department and the public.
“Honestly, we wished it never came to this,” he said. “We’d be more than willing to resolve the issue at the bargaining table.”
In a phone interview after the hearing, Menard said she was surprised that the firefighters went to court on the issue because no layoff notices have been issued yet. Menard said the city had prepared a partial list of layoff notices, but it was for the Police Department, not firefighters.
There were 34 police officers on the list, Menard said, but the number of possible layoffs on the Fire Department — pegged at up to 60 earlier this week — has not been calculated yet, she said.
Even though Israel’s order does not apply to the police, Menard said the city would refrain from issuing layoff notices to any public safety employees until the hearing on Tuesday at the earliest. She had been planning to issue the notices by the end of the day today.
The fast-moving developments in the rift with the police and fire unions all stem from Menard’s plan to eliminate a projected deficit of some $3.6 million in the current budget year — the trickle-down effect of state cuts. Menard says that without major concessions on wages and health care benefits from the unions, she will be forced to impose massive layoffs on public safety workers in order to keep the city from running out of cash, and possibly going bankrupt, by early March.
Under pressure from Superior Court Judge Mark A. Pfeiffer, who is expected to preside over next week’s hearing, the two unions that represent workers in City Hall ratified new five-month contracts with the city last week. Local 3851 of the Professional and Technical Employees and Local 670 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) agreed to take five unpaid furlough days and begin making sizable, first-time-ever contributions to their health insurance premiums.
But Pfeiffer’s efforts to bring the IAFF and Local 404 of the International Brotherhood of Police Officers closer to new contracts have been unsuccessful so far, and the mayor is not particularly optimistic that they will be. Menard said the unions want a contract that lasts substantially longer than five months, and that is something she is unwilling to give as long as next year’s revenue outlook remains unclear.
“We’re at a standstill because the unions want a multi-year contract and it’s impossible for us to do that when we haven’t even seen the governor’s budget for next year,” Menard said.
The offer on the table for both public safety units calls for a 5 percent pay cut and a mandatory contribution of 15 percent of gross pay toward health insurance premiums — cuts that are deeper than those approved by the unions that already ratified a new contract.
Meanwhile, the Superior Court hearing is sure to be closely watched because Gov. Donald Carcieri, in his proposed budget reforms, seeks the elimination of minimum manning on fire departments statewide.
Roy said the law upon which Israel based the temporary restraining order is quite clear: Without collective bargaining, the city cannot arbitrarily cut its fire department workforce, which is contractually authorized for 135 members. The minimum staffing levels are guaranteed in the language of the fire department’s existing contract with the city, he said, as well as a state law known as the Fire Fighters Arbitration Act.
The laws are there to protect the safety of the public and the firefighters themselves, and the Superior Court, at least so far, seems poised to uphold them, according to Roy.
But Menard disputes the notion that layoffs on the fire department would undermine the city’s capacity to protect the lives and property of its residents, or the well-being of firefighters. Carcieri himself proposed eliminating it because he believes it is an unnecessarily wasteful requirement, forcing municipalities to bring workers in for overtime when their fellow workers call in sick, according to Menard.
“No — no I don’t,” the mayor said when asked if such layoffs would adversely affect the city. “If that were true, why would the governor introduce a bill to eliminate minimum manning altogether?”