UFA Brings Back Its Circular Firing Squad

A quarter-century ago, after Uniformed Firefighters Association delegates had voted down a tentative contract deal with the Dinkins administration that had the political rivals of then-President Jimmy Boyle chortling over the defeat having killed his chances of being re-elected, a deeper thinker on the union’s board asked plaintively, “Why do we always shoot ourselves in the foot?”

His concern was justified: the pact’s rejection forced the UFA into arbitration, where it suffered a costly defeat for the second consecutive bargaining round, although the loss of members’ annual $1,000 uniform allowance was relatively minor compared to what had been taken away from them after delegates rejected a 1989 contract negotiated by then-President Nick Mancuso. In both cases, delegates bristled at the attempts first by Mayor Ed Koch and later by Mr. Dinkins to make them accept lesser terms than one or more unions had gotten under a bargaining concept that actually penalized the UFA for there being less turnover in the Firefighter ranks than occurred among cops and correction officers.