Plantation, Fl. – Two days after Christmas, the city of Plantation terminated an EMS worker who is recovering from surgery in retaliation for leading co-workers in a lawsuit for overtime pay and in organizing a union of rescue employees. The discharge continues a department-wide purge of union supporters that dates back to 2005.

Jude Diaz, a member of IAFF Local 4430, lost his job because Fire Chief Robert Pudney refused to place him on light duty to accommodate his physical rehabilitation or to even grant an unpaid medical leave of absence. Diaz needs just one month to continue physical rehabilitation before he can return to full duty, but had been released for light duty since October.

Diaz had hoped to make a career at the Plantation Rescue Division and care for his terminally-ill wife. Instead, the retaliatory discharge will cost him his health insurance for his family and could throw him out on the street.

“The real reason they are firing me is that they have never forgiven me for standing up for my rights, and the rights of my colleagues,” Diaz says.

The city of Plantation could have retained Diaz by placing him on light duty while he continues his physical rehabilitation, but Chief Pudney refused to do so. The city has frequently allowed other, non-union employees to continue their employment in the fire department while on light duty to allow more time for physical rehabilitation. One non-union employee came off of an extended period of light duty just weeks before Diaz’s request was made. Hoping to preserve his family’s health insurance, Diaz sought an unpaid medical leave of absence to rehabilitate while paying medical costs for himself and his wife. That request, too, was denied by Chief Pudney.

“Terminating an employee at Christmastime is the ultimate lump of coal,” says IAFF General President Harold Schaitberger. “The city of Plantation has no excuse for treating Jude Diaz this way, but this reprehensible behavior is expected in light of the city’s record of disdain for Local 4430 and its members.”

City officials in Plantation fought to prevent formation of Local 4430, and wrongfully fired EMS worker and Local 4430 President Jeffrey Poole in December 2005 – also just days before Christmas. Poole was also a plaintiff in the overtime suit. A retaliation lawsuit is pending against the City and department chiefs for these earlier retaliatory actions against Poole, Diaz and others. Diaz is considering his legal options now that the retaliation against has escalated to discharge.

In 2005, Diaz and over a dozen other employees filed a lawsuit against the City for unpaid overtime. City attorneys refused offers to settle the suit for more than a year before a U.S. District Court ruled that the City had violated the Fair Labor Standards Act for more than two years. The City spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on lawyers in defending the case, despite numerous attempts by employees to settle the case amicably.

Within weeks after the filing of the suit, the department began firing and disciplining the plaintiffs and union organizers, including Diaz. Many others resigned to work in a better work environment and better pay. Local 4430 continues to call for better pay and benefits for Rescue Division employees, including a better disability and retirement system, and for improved working conditions.

The International Association of Fire Fighters, headquartered in Washington, DC, represents more than 287,000 full-time professional fire fighters and paramedics who protect 80 percent of the nation’s population. More information is available at www.iaff.org.

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