AIDS clause negotiated into firefighters’ contract
DEPARTMENTS
Dispatches
Firefighters in Warrensville Heights, Ohio will receive financial assistance from the city should they contract acquired immune deficiency syndrome.
Under provisions of a two-year union contract, the city will pay the difference between a firefighter’s state disability pension and his or her annual salary until death or retirement age is reached. The provision is in effect whether or not the firefighter contracted AIDS from a work-related incident.
“We hope that the clause will never kick in and that we’ll never know how well it works,” says David Byrnes, president of Local 5091 of the International Association of Fire Fighters.
No one on the department has AIDS, yet the firefighters, described as being concerned with health and safety issues, wanted the clause. Local officials embraced the concept, and after a few negotiating sessions, the clause was part of the contract.
The clause is believed to be the first of its kind, says Byrnes, who’s also a district vice president for the union.
At least two other departments in Ohio are trying to negotiate a similar clause into their contracts.
