http://www.buffalonews.com/cit.....requirement-20150612 People are waking up. The ones who scream the loudest against this are the ones benefitting from the status quo. We will be seeing a lot more of this, I believe, as the unions agree to more and more "screw the new hires" contracts to protect their otherwise unsustainable hauls. Interesting that unions and public employees see having to live in the places you make your very good living from "serving" as some kind of punishment they only wish on the other guy.
Although I personally think the residency requirement is stupid and should be abolished, I was also curious as to why some lawyer or organization hadn't challenged the constitutionality of it, so I started some research on the topic. As it turns out, this debate has been and continues to rage on. And although I waded through a huge number of articles and opinions on the subject I ended deciding to post this, where the issue did end up in court. Their decision in this particular case was interesting to say the least. The debate shall rage on I guess.
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The Detroit Firefighters Union had numerous court battles over residency requirements throughout the 70's and early to mid eighties. The question actually ended up in front of the U.S. Supreme Court on more than one occassion (3 times I believe).
The Supreme Court ruled that residency requirements were constitutional but there was a clitch in the ruling that upset the city fathers.
The Supreme Court stated that the employee had to retain a residence within the city but that the city could not require the Firefighters wifes and children to reside within the city limits. They stated that the prove of domicile did not include where the wifes and children lived. In order to meet the requirements the court said if the Firefighters took the following actions, the residency requirement was met.
Firefighters had to rent apartments or houses and register to vote and have the address on their drivers license and utilities in their name, thus proving residency (as many as 3-5 Firefighters rented the same place). They also had to have all their utilities at their suburban homes in their wive's name. They also had to have thier suburban house in the wifes name. The Firefighters had to stay at the city residence the evening before their shift and must go to that address after leaving the shift. Bottom line was the employer could not tell the employees family where they could live.
The city spent millions of dollars trying to discharge Firefighters by hiring a private security firm to follow the Firefighters suspected of living outside the city limit. Over a 20+ year attempt and many discharges, only one discharge was upheld due to the individuals personal screwup (didn't follow the rules). All the others were ordered to be reinstated with all seniority and back pay. Some of these cases took 3-4 years of court battles.
The city never went after any single firefighters as they could not tell them they had to go home or leave their home for shift purposes. As long as they had a city address they were untouchable.
The unions lobbied in the state legislature for 8 years to bring about a state law abolishing all residency reuirements in the state of Michigan. In 2000 the law became reality and now residency is a thing of the past in Michigan. State residency is required to get hired on most departments but once your on there is no law that I can find stating that you must remain a resident of the state in order to continue employment. This part has not been contested by any employer as of this time. This law also included Police Officers.
We actually have individuals that have residences in other states and commute but they also have an apartment here.
"I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked, dragging themselves through the negro streets at dawn looking for an angry fix,"
Telling folks where they have to live because of a JOB.....sounds incredibly bizarre to me!!!
period!!!
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
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