PRINGFIELD - A Springfield man has become the first firefighter in the state to be fired under a Massachusetts law prohibiting firefighters and police officers from smoking, on or off the job. Posted on 11/01/2002 4:25:30 AM PST by Lance Romance
Springfield firefighter fired for smoking cigarette in car
By Associated Press, 11/1/2002
PRINGFIELD - A Springfield man has become the first firefighter in the state to be fired under a Massachusetts law prohibiting firefighters and police officers from smoking, on or off the job.
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John S. Marrero, 25, was smoking when a trooper arrested him on July 22 for driving erratically, the Springfield Fire Commission found. He also faces criminal charges of possession of crack cocaine and OxyContin and several motor vehicle violations.
Marrero pleaded innocent, saying he was driving a borrowed car when he was arrested and did not know there were drugs in the vehicle, according to the Union-News of Springfield.
His criminal trial is scheduled for Feb. 25 in Springfield District Court, and he is free on personal recognizance. He was fired from the department Wednesday.
The no-smoking law calls for the firing of any firefighter or police officer hired after Jan. 1, 1988, who is caught smoking tobacco products on or off duty.
The law was enacted under a pension reform measure that automatically presumes that heart ailments for police and firefighters are job-related disabilities. The accidental disability pension provides for 72 percent of a police officer or firefighter's final salary, annuity, and allowance for dependents - all tax free.
Kevin Garvey, president of Springfield Association of Fire Fighters, Local 648, said the union will appeal the finding to the state Civil Service Commission.
Can this possibly be legal? Homosexuality is much more life threatening than cigarettes.
This sounds like the result of Union activity. Likely the fire fighters and police unions wanted a bigger pension benefit when members were forced to retired for heart decease. So the legislature decided that if they were to pay out they taxpayer deserved to be assured that they were not paying for self inflicted injury.
Being that the firefighter new what the rules of the job was when he accepted the job, he has no reason to complain.
He agreed to the contract.
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Presumably the drug and motor vehicle violations weren't as heinous as smoking a cigarette. |
This is kind of like having a cop find a bullet-riddled body in the trunk of your car and you get busted for not wearing your seatbelt.
Point Two: you will note that the reason the rule was enacted was health insurance. Never ever let social medicine become a reality in the States. It is trojan horse that brings the loss of all other freedoms. The gov't will say they have to ban unhealthy behavior because of the burden to the public.
This is crazy. People will allow it to happen because they've been taught to hate smokers and because it only affects roughly 25% of the population. They'll sniff and say "well, it'll be better for them- they should quit smoking and it'll lower insurance rates".
So let them outlaw my bad habit- but when the gov't outlaws stupidity I won't say a word when the Jack Boots come to drag my neighbors away- I'll be too busy hotboxing one of my stash in the basement.
Not so fast yourself. While the article says that he is the first to be fired under the rule, it does not say this is a new law.
Your Freeper page does not have a local for you. Are from Mass. or are you just assuming that this is a new law?
My experience with such maters in the union world is that such provisions only apply to new hires after the rule goes into effect.
Do you suppose someone held a gun to this moron's head to force him to take a job where the rule is: YOU CANNOT SMOKE! IF YOU DO YOU WILL BE FIRED!?
I wouldn't have taken the job because I couldn't live up to the policy. I guess you see him as just another "victim"?
Mass. Gen. L. ch. 41, § 101A, passed in 1987, reads as follows: Subsequent to January first, nineteen hundred and eighty-eight, noperson who smokes any tobacco product shall be eligible for appointment as a police officer or firefighter in a city or town and no person so appointed after said date shall continue in such office or position if such person thereafter smokes any tobacco products. The personnel administrator shall promulgate regulations for the implementation of this section.
Yeah, it's legal - Turner Broadcasting has this rule in place. When I worked at CNN, there was an area as you headed out toward the parking deck where the smokers would congregate, and the security folk would pretty much look the other way though.
Someone tried to sue Turner over it, and lost. [shrug]
I smoked cigars at home during that period -- and dared anyone to say word one to me.
If you want on or off this list, please let me know!
This has come about after much badgering by you, my friends and extended family...
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