Ohio Township Reverses Fitness Policy

Oct. 03--After an-hour long meeting with a mediator Wednesday, Sylvania Township has withdrawn its policy to penalize firefighters for lack of exercise.

Susan Wood, assistant township administrator, said the township cannot impose a penalty because it was not in the union contract. With penalties off the table, the union representing township firefighters withdrew its grievance.

The compromise was reached after Kevin Moyer, with the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, met with the township administrators and the fire department union officials. The mediator was called in to assist in resolving the dispute.

The International Association of Firefighters Local 2243, which represents the firefighters, filed a grievance in June because the township said a few weeks earlier that it would enforce its physical fitness policy by penalizing firefighters who did not participate in required physical training. The township said each firefighter must participate in a fitness regimen for one hour on at least eight of every 10 working days. And some were not doing that, officials said.

Lt. Chris Nye, president of the local firefighters' union, said at the heart of the dispute was a documentation issue.

"We had a loose requirement to document physical training in our journal, and guys were not doing this," he said.

Without the firefighters recording their workouts, it appeared they were not performing the amount of training needed under the policy. Since the dispute began, Mr. Nye said, more firefighters have documenting their workouts.

Ms. Wood said the township would bring up the issue in the next collective bargaining sessions, about two years from now. The current three-year labor agreement began Jan. 1. The township fire department serves Sylvania city and township. It has 57 firefighters and paramedics.

The fitness of firefighters is a concern, township officials said, because each year more than 100 firefighters in the United States die in the line of duty, and about half of those are caused by heart attack or stroke. The U.S. Fire Administration estimates that more than 700,000 firefighters work for departments with no program to maintain basic health.

The grievance stated that the township violated the contract by implementing a participation rate for that fitness training.

Contact Natalie Trusso Cafarello at: 419-206-0356, or ntrusso@theblade.com, or on Twitter @natalietrusso.

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