A Louisiana hearth captain who was terminated final 12 months, has filed swimsuit claiming he’s being retaliated in opposition to for contacting elected officers in his capability as a union consultant, in violation of his First Modification rights. Jonathan Gramm filed swimsuit in US District Courtroom for the Western District of Louisiana naming the DeSoto Parish Hearth District 9 and Hearth Chief Kristopher King as defendants.
Gramm, who additionally serves as secretary-treasurer for IAFF Native 5138, helped manage the native in 2017. His present drawback started when he telephoned members of the hearth district’s Board of Commissioners. As defined within the criticism:
- On September 18, 2023, Gramm, together with different hearth fighters employed by the District, discovered that the upcoming Board of Commissioners assembly agenda included an merchandise to approve public funds to be spent on a brand new car for the Hearth Chief.
- Native 5138 membership met to formulate a response to the Board of Commissioners to voice the hearth fighters’ concern for public funds being spent on a brand new car for the Hearth Chief quite than being spent to enhance the poor working situations and tools at Hearth District 9. The fireplace fighters determined that Gramm, as their Union consultant, would contact members of the Board of Commissioners to petition using the District’s assets appropriately in the direction of the much-needed enhancements for the hearth fighters’ tools and hearth stations quite than use these funds to purchase a brand new car for Hearth Chief King.
- On September 18, 2023, Gramm—whereas off responsibility—telephoned Commissioners Ross Tilbury and Bobby Ettredge to petition them, as his authorities officers, to redress his and different the District’s hearth fighters’ considerations in regards to the District and the expenditure of public funds.
- Gramm defined that he and the opposite hearth fighters believed it’s inappropriate for the Board to spend public cash on a brand new car for the Hearth Chief whereas the District’s stations and tools have been in severe want of enchancment. Gramm additionally defined that the Native 5138 membership believed that the cash could be higher spent bettering Hearth District 9’s stations and hearth combating tools, as that might higher guarantee their security, in addition to that of the DeSoto Parish group.
- Gramm requested for his or her tools and hearth station points be heard on the upcoming Hearth District 9 Board of Commissioners assembly.
- The Commissioners that Gramm spoke to have been receptive to his considerations, and he requested by Commissioner Ettredge to convey additional considerations and points to him.
- Upon arriving at work the subsequent day, Hearth Chief King referred to as Gramm into his workplace and handed him a discover of formal investigation for an “incident involving him on or round September 18, 2023.”
- This incident was clearly the protected constitutional exercise Gramm engaged within the day earlier than with the Commissioners whereas off-duty in his capacities as a union officer and personal citizen.
- After this assembly, Gramm was despatched dwelling and positioned on administrative go away.
- Whereas on administrative go away, Gramm was topic to an investigation personally spearheaded by Hearth Chief King that lacked due course of.
- On November 27, 2023, Defendants terminated Gramm’s employment. Gramm was supplied with an official discover of disciplinary motion that acknowledged Gramm “acted in an unbecoming, discourteous, deliberate, and unprovoked method” when he “bypassed [his] supervisory, defamed the Hearth Chief Kristopher King and made false statements and accusations of [sic] the misuse of division funds and an absence of appropriated tools, to a member of the DeSoto Parish Hearth District 9 Board of Commissioners exterior of a Board of Commissioner’s open assembly. Your conduct was prejudicial to good order and demonstrated an absence of excellent ethical character in the direction of a fellow worker of DeSoto Parish Hearth District 9.”
- By means of this discover of disciplinary motion, Defendants explicitly acknowledge that Gramm was terminated for petitioning his authorities officers to redress grievances in his capability as a union officer whereas off-duty and for talking to them as a personal citizen about issues of public concern.
The criticism alleges 42 U.S.C. § 1983 violations without spending a dime speech, freedom of affiliation, and proper to petition authorities for a redress of grievances below the First and Fourteenth Amendments; and retaliation below Louisiana’s collective bargaining legal guidelines that assure workers shall be “free from the interference, restraint, or coercion of employers of labor, or their brokers, within the designation of such representatives or in self-organization or in different concerted actions for the aim of collective bargaining or different mutual help or safety.”
Here’s a copy of the criticism: