By Mara Lee
The Hartford Courant
WEST HARTFORD, Conn. — A union steward who was fired from his emergency medical technician job three years ago must be rehired, according to a ruling from the federal agency that protects workers’ rights.
Adam Cummings, who worked for American Medical Response in West Hartford, protested discipline against EMTs and paramedics who were not checking fluids and for damage to ambulances before the start of every shift.
Cummings was disciplined and, ultimately, fired for telling the workers not to comply because they weren’t trained to do fluid checks, case documents say. He said that mechanics should do the checks until the company did this kind of training, and that the employer should talk to the union about the requirement.
But, the National Labor Relations Board said, in the end he told workers that the union had filed a grievance and to do the work until it was resolved.
The board said Cummings is owed back pay with interest, minus earnings received for work he has done since his firing, because he was fired for his union activism, which is protected by law.
American Medical Response, a national company with 19,800 employees, had appealed the original ruling to the Washington, D.C., board, and on Friday, the board upheld the original judgment from 2012.
The NLRB previously ruled that the company had intimidated employees to discourage them from unionizing.
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©2014 The Hartford Courant (Hartford, Conn.)