Cooler heads in the firefighters' dispute?

I kind of remember the pre-Mardi Gras press conferences about this stuff  had the mayor and the fire chief assuring everyone that, despite the disputes over vacation and overtime shifts, the fire department would be adequately staffed to handle the load of parade season.  Were they?  There was a sick-out one day. And the season didn't exactly go off without a hitch. But without knowing more about how emergency personnel are deployed we can't really say how or when a shortage of firefighters might have made things more difficult.  For most people, the most tangible result was the lack of a fire engine tail unit which made it difficult to determine if a parade was over or not.

At least he Krewe of Druids attempted that problem with this riderless float.




Anyway, it sounds like they're getting along marginally better now. Nevertheless this was interesting.

From the outside, tensions seemed to have lowered when both sides agreed to discuss their differences after Mardi Gras. As signs of good faith, McConnell revoked his order canceling firefighters’ leave, and the union said it dropped its voluntary overtime boycott.

But in a move that largely went undetected by the public until Friday, Mischler sent a letter saying that the union membership had met and authorized him to call for a strike at 7 p.m. on Friday if talks broke down.

It's always a risky play for emergency services workers to actually go out on strike. When they vote to authorize it, that woud indicate the situation must be pretty serious.