Black firefighters sue their union

Ethyl Hendricks, 81, was proud that her late husband, Capt. Charles Henderson, fought for the civil rights of black firefighters as a plaintiff, winning a federal consent decree to end discrimination in the Fire Department.

But yesterday, Hendricks was in tears, listening to Fire Lt. Kenneth Greene describe how Philadelphia Fire Fighters Union Local 22 uses its private, Internet message board to malign black members and create "a racially harassing and hostile" union environment.

"Enough is enough," Greene, president of Club Valiants Inc., an organization of black firefighters, said at the Valiants' meeting hall in East Mount Airy.

"I'm tired of trying to get [Local] 22's presidents to sit down and talk with us," said Greene, explaining why the federal class-action lawsuit was filed this week by the Valiants and the Philadelphia NAACP. "I wanted to stop the racist practices because it's dividing the union."

Greene said that when he brought up such issues at union meetings, fire chiefs and others threatened and intimidated him, saying "shut up, sit down, get out."

The lawsuit named Local 22 and the Concerned American Firefighters Association (CAFFA), a mainly white firefighters organization, as defendants. Local 22 has no black officers or trustees and only one black employee, a janitor.

The city was also named as a defendant because Local 22's "racially offensive" Internet message board was "widely used" in the city's firehouses, by employees and supervisors, to "insult, deter and alienate" black firefighters, Club Valiants and its leadership, the suit alleged.

Many posts cited a nonstandard form of English spoken by some American blacks known as "ebonics" to "tease" them and imply that they were not as intelligent as whites, the lawsuit said.

Another post from Sept. 11 suggested blacks needed training on how to use new flashlights. It read:

"I AIN'T DOIN' NUTTIN TILL I GETS MY FLASHLIGHT AND GETS DA TRAININ ON HOW THE JAWNZIZ IS SUPPOSED TO WORKS, YOWWWWWW MEANS, NOSE WHAT I'M SAYIN!!!!!!!!!!!"

Greene said that some users would "copy and paste" the same "degrading" comments on Local 22's Web site and a now-defunct police Web site, Domelights.com, that was closed earlier this year for creating a "hostile work environment."

The posts stated that black firefighters were promoted even though they were not qualified, the suit charged.

During ongoing contract negotiations, Greene said, the union is trying to get the city to drop the consent decree and change the promotion exam, even though the department is disproportionately white compared to the city population.

Although he hadn't read the suit, Fire Commissioner Lloyd Ayers said that the department's "main concern is firefighters' being able to work together" to protect citizens.

Mike Bresnan, president of CAFFA, said his organization did not condone racist posts on a message board but questioned Club Valiants' motivation.

"I guess they're upset because we've been challenging the consent decree because we see it as a race-based quota and it's wrong," said Bresnan, referring to the 1984 federal court decision that approved a new entrance exam and accelerated the hiring of black firefighters.

In a prepared statement, Local 22 president Bill Gault said the union does "not allow or condone discrimination in any fashion at any level."

Gault acknowledged that Local 22 has competing interest groups among its members but said the union "acts without prejudice for the good of the whole."

He said he expected that Local 22 would win "complete vindication" when the suit is adjudicated.

The lawsuit seeks class-action status for more than 500 black city firefighters, appointment of a federal monitor to oversee Local 22 until it is no longer "a racially hostile union, and a ban on the use of the local's Internet site for racially hostile postings, among other things.