Human resources and management

Read the news article below and write a 3 page paper on how you would handle this problem and what groups you would enlist to assist you.

The relationship of Boston and its fire department has been one of love/hate. You can find chapter and verse of this tense relationship between a very structured department and pressure from the community to change. Over the years, each side has had right on their side and just as often been wrong. Again, look at this article and answer as if this was your problem. How would you handle this as the Chief of Department and what groups would you enlist to assist you.
Firehouse.com – The Web’s Source for Fire, Rescue & EMS

Boston Mayor Pushes for Public Safety Drug Tests
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JESSICA VAN SACK
Boston Herald
Mayor Thomas M. Menino wants to circumvent bitter contract talks with Hub firefighters by pushing for a new state law that would require all public safety employees to submit to random drug and alcohol tests.
“The firefighters are fighting us tooth and nail over drug and alcohol testing,” said Menino spokeswoman Dot Joyce. “Random drug and alcohol testing should be mandatory for public safety and for public trust.”
Menino takes his years-long battle with firefighters to Beacon Hill Thursday, when a legislative committee is expected to take up the bill he is co-sponsoring.
Under the proposal, filed by Rep. Christopher Donelan (D-Orange), testing regulations would be devised by the Executive Office of Public Safety.
The hearing comes on the heels of a Boston firefighter’s resignation over the weekend, after a federal drug raid on his Maine home, where agents seized 131 marijuana plants.
Although a similar bill was filed last year to no avail, Menino’s camp hopes the Legislature’s notorious resistance to take on public employee unions will be outweighed by an outcry over public safety.
Ed Kelly, president of Boston Firefighters Local 718, did not return calls.
Menino is running for an unprecedented fifth term. With a series of arbitration hearings scheduled through July, officials estimate a contract settlement may not come before the November election. Hub jakes have been without a contract since July 2006.
Failing to secure random drug testing for firefighters in an election year would be ugly prospect for Menino. Firefighters have endorsed At-Large Councilor Michael Flaherty for mayor. Flaherty has said he agrees that firefighters should be required to undergo drug tests — but wants such a requirement applied to all city workers.
Drug and alcohol use has been suspected of contributing to the deaths of two firefighters who died battling an August 2007 restaurant fire in West Roxbury.
Joyce said taxpayers are unfairly footing the bill for ongoing contract talks, and that “the mayor is looking at every way possible to ensure public safety and public trust.”
McClatchy-Tribune News Service