The union for Green Bay firefighters has lost a nearly two-year fight against a city initiative requiring firefighters to make house calls on discharged hospital patients.

A state labor arbitrator has ruled the city was within its rights to initiate a program in which Bellin Hospital paid the city $50 for each house call.

But whether the so-called Hook and Ladder program will move forward in its original structure remains to be seen.

City officials suspended the program indefinitely while awaiting a decision on the grievance filed by the Green Bay Professional Fire Fighters Association.

The union argued that Hook and Ladder was an improper expansion of firefighters duties and that the city could not impose such new assignments unilaterally under the union's contract.

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Source:  Green Bay Press Gazette