Appeal of City of Portsmouth

The petitioner, the board of fire commissioners of the City of Portsmouth (the fire commission), appeals the decision of the New Hampshire Public Employee Labor Relations Board (PELRB), supporting the complaint of the respondent, Portsmouth Firefighters, Local 1313 (the union), that a fire commissioner’s comments reported in a local newspaper were an unfair labor practice in violation of RSA 273-A:5, 1(a), (b), (e), and (g) (1987). The fire commission argues that the comments of a single commissioner did not constitute an act of “the public employer”; that a letter addressed directly to…