Fighting fire with fire

The anger's gone. So too are the frustrations that led to a bitter labor dispute between Cape Girardeau firefighters and city officials 25 years ago this month.

The newspaper clippings have long yellowed with age. But the memories of both sides are still strong and still far apart.

Former city manager W.G. Lawley, who is now retired and living in Burlington, Iowa, still views the actions of the firefighters as an illegal strike. But retired and current firefighters said they were kicked out of the fire stations by National Guard troops.

"The dispute was over wages," said fire department battalion chief Bob Kembel, adding that he was "just a regular old fireman at the time."

"This wasn't something we wanted to do," Kembel said. "We were forced into this situation."

A quarter-century ago, some city firefighters made as little as $7,344 a year. Some were so poor they relied on food stamps to supplement their meager pay, firefighters said.

However, the average salary in the department was about $12,000 back then.

Firemen wanted an 11.7 percent pay increase. With benefits, the increase would have amounted to about 14.7 percent. The city offered a 7.5 percent pay increase. With benefits, the total increase would have added up to 8.8 percent, according to news accounts.

Lawley remembers that he refused to negotiate wages with officials of Local 1084 of the International Association of Firefighters, which represented the firefighters.

"I didn't see any point of messing around with it," he said of salary talks. "I looked at how much we could afford. I offered that, and I wouldn't budge."

Under state law, Lawley said, city officials had to "meet and confer" with the firefighters' union leaders. But he said city officials didn't have to bargain with the union over wages.

Frustrated firefighters wanted Lawley to bring in a federal mediator. He refused.

On June 22, 1979, the labor dispute heated up as firefighters began what they called "a work slowdown."

They refused to offer stand-by fire protection for Ozark Air Lines flights into the Cape Girardeau Regional Airport, breaking a Federal Aviation Administration requirement. As a result, the airline temporarily canceled flights to Cape Girardeau.

Firefighters also refused to make fire inspections, respond to trash container fires, issue burning permits or prepare fire reports. They did continue to respond to all fires in the city.

Firefighters began picketing in front of city hall and the fire stations.

City officials led by Lawley called it an "illegal strike," arguing that Missouri law didn't allow public employees to strike.

"I viewed it as a power play, basically," Lawley recalled.

Former Mayor Paul Stehr recalled the city council was solidly behind the actions of the city manager. "You can call it anything you want to, but it was a strike," he said. "They called it a slowdown. Well, you don't slow down a fire department. They were just throwing around words."

Three days after the slowdown began, Lawley ordered firefighters to go back to work. They ignored the demand.

At the request of Cape Girardeau firefighters, the Jackson Fire Department agreed it wouldn't respond to any fires in Cape Girardeau unless ordered to do so by the then Jackson Mayor Carlton Meyer.

On June 26, four days after the slowdown began, Lawley said he would suspend the firefighters unless they resumed their full duties. They rejected the demand.

At Lawley's request, Gov. Joseph Teasdale activated 100 National Guard troops from Caruthersville and Kennett. The guardsmen arrived at 6 a.m. on June 27 and began manning the city's four fire stations.

Firefighters said troops kicked them out. Lawley said troops didn't enter the stations until firefighters walked out. If firefighters hadn't walked out, the troops would have gone home, Lawley said.

Firefighters remember it far differently. Capt. Charles Brawley had been a firefighter in the city for only about two months when the labor dispute arose.

At the time, the main fire station was at Independence and Frederick in a brick building that is now the Cape River Heritage Museum.

Brawley was at Station No. 1 when the troops arrived.

"They walked in in riot gear and said, 'Walk out,'" Brawley said. "We were well outnumbered. One guy with the National Guard jabbed at me with a nightstick. We were put right out on the sidewalks."

Tom Hinkebein, now a battalion chief, said troops marched in with M-16s.

"They pushed us from one end of the building to the other," he said. "They shoved us out of the front of the building. We were locked out."

Firefighters worried that they might lose their jobs.

"We weren't sure what would happen," said Mearlin Allen, who was a captain in the fire department at the time and is now retired and living in Cape Girardeau.

Spreading dispute

On the day the troops moved in, the labor dispute spread to employees in other city departments, including public works and the parks department. In all, 145 city employees were now at odds with the city administration, including 54 firefighters.

None of the city's police officers joined in the dispute, and city hall employees also kept working. Henry Gerecke of Cape Girardeau, who was police chief at the time, ordered his officers to stay on the job or risk being fired.

Firefighters said the public supported their side in the labor dispute. Motorists often honked their horns to show their support, they said.

But Gerecke recalled the public largely ignored the dispute. "They weren't all that upset about it."

Back then, Air National Guard soldiers were brought in from St. Louis to help train the other guardsmen. Stand-by fire protection was restored at the airport and Ozark Air Lines resumed its flights to the city.

City officials went to court to get a restraining order against what they viewed as an unlawful work stoppage.

"They were saying it was just mean and ugly," Lawley said. "I was saying it was a matter of law."

On June 28, then Circuit Judge Stanley Grimm issued a restraining order designed to force city employees to go back to work.

On June 29, the disgruntled employees met at city hall and refused to go back to work. About 120 city employees, including all the firefighters, walked 15 miles to the county courthouse in Jackson with a police escort to protest what union officials said was "bad faith in negotiating" on the part of city officials.

Hinkebein remembers that it was hot the day they walked to Jackson, two by two, in a long line along U.S. 61. Hinkebein said the soles of his firefighter's dress shoes split open.

"A guy from public works had a roll of duct tape," he said. "We taped up my shoes so I could continue to walk."

At Klaus Park, just southwest of the Interstate 55 and U.S. 61 interchange, local businesses and supporters fed the marchers.

Former Sheriff Jimmy Joe Below met the marchers when they arrived at the courthouse in Jackson. In an effort to keep the peace, Below told firefighters that no arrest order had been issued and that the county jail wasn't large enough to hold all the protesting workers.

The march occurred even as Lawley and the firefighters' attorney, Bill Rader of Cape Girardeau, were meeting to resolve the dispute.

"He was kind of fighting us every step of the way," Rader remembered.

But as the workers were marching to Jackson, Lawley finally agreed to bring in a federal mediator. The city employees agreed to go back to work.

"We had a lot of handwringing and everything else," Rader said. "When you get something settled like that, you breathe a sigh of relief."

Negotiations with a federal mediator began on July 9 and resumed on July 13. At the end of the second day of negotiations, a tentative agreement was reached.

City employees received 7 percent pay raises above their normal pay plan advancements.

As part of the agreement, Lawley promised to seek additional retirement benefits in the next fiscal year. Under the agreement, the employees who participated in the job slowdown were docked pay, but a new plan was put in place to handle employee grievances.

A year later, Lawley said city employees received about 12 percent pay raises including benefits above amounts they were earning prior to the firefighters' action.

Firefighters today believe their actions set a basis for more cooperative pay talks between city management and city employees during the last 25 years.

In October 1980, Lawley resigned. He later served as city manager in Burlington, Iowa.

Some firefighters said they believe the 1979 labor dispute played a role in Lawley's decision to leave. Lawley said that isn't the case.

"I wasn't mad at anybody," he said. "I just thought it was time for a change."

mbliss@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 123