Michigan Association of Fire Fighters

 

MAFF Labor Relations Specialist Ron Palmquist is retiring after 25 years representing union members.

 

By Jennifer Gomori, MAFF Editor

Even though MAFF Labor Relations Specialist Ron Palmquist technically retired 25 years ago, a weekend hardly constitutes a break in employment. Now, after 46 years of work, he is retiring for real.

Palmquist began representing fellow police officers while he was employed with Southfield Police Department, where he started as an Officer in 1970 and now, at the age of 70, is retiring from MAFF on Oct. 31, 2016.

A Retirement Open House in celebration of his hard work and dedication is planned from 11 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 28 at the MAFF office. “Ron has been a big part of our organization,” MAFF staff wrote in the Open House flyer. “His knowledge and years of experience brought us to where we are today.”

But that’s not where his story begins. With an associates degree in mechanical engineering, Palmquist’s first career was at Chrysler, but a downturn in the economy two years later led him to law enforcement. “My father-in-law was a Detroit Police Officer and when I was working at Chrysler, I was picking up abandoned cars in Detroit and had some contact with Detroit Police Officers,” Palmquist said. “Some of the folks I talked to said ‘you ought to get into law enforcement.’” Back then, Southfield hired in officers and paid for them to go for their police academy training. “We even had to take a lie detector test. They don’t do that anymore,” he said.

Apparently those officers knew what they were talking about since Palmquist was among seven people hired in from 300 applicants. That’s also where he met MAFF Executive Director Fred Timpner, who joined Southfield PD in 1971. “When he was President of Southfield Police Officers Association, I was the Secretary,” Palmquist said. “He went on to work with Carl (Parsell) and MAP. I continued my career until (December) 1991, I retired on a Friday and came to work the following Monday.

He’s seen a lot of changes in Southfield since then. “Toward the end of my career we were having a lot of action,” he said. “That was probably the beginning of the end for Northland (Mall). There were a lot of gang-related incidents. On my last day of work, there was a shooting at Northland.”

Now the mall is no more and Palmquist said the whole area is in need of revitalization. He’s also witnessed many changes in the Union. “I joined right after Carl passed away. Of course, there were less members than what we have today, a lot less members and less groups,” Palmquist said. “We certainly have grown quite a bit over the years since I started.”

The transition was perfect for the former President of Southfield Police Officer’s Association and later Command Officers Association Wage Negotiator when he was promoted to Sergeant. He credits his “interest in wanting to help my fellow man” for his career path. “That got me into law enforcement and carried over to my union involvement,” Palmquist said. “I was able to make things better for employees with collective bargaining and if they got themselves in trouble and we needed to go through a grievance process.”

He particularly enjoyed sitting across the table from attorneys and being able to convince an arbitrator that the Union’s position was the right position on an issue. “Labor law was originally set up for the layperson to do, but most of our employers, if we go to arbitration on a grievance, they get an attorney involved. The majority of the time we handle the Union side of the situation unless of course we’re going to court.”

“Unfortunately, in the last several years with the change in labor laws, there’s more advantage to employers,” he said. ‘It has made the work a lot more challenging to try to accomplish the task the employees want and should have.” He doesn’t see any change soon. “It will probably be a lot longer turning around than it took them to throw everything into turmoil,” Palmquist said. “Unfortunately, with what’s happened in society with law enforcement as well as the laws adopted here in Michigan, that put a lot of restrictions on labor as far as what we can negotiate for. That has turned people off to the public sector and law enforcement.

“Folks wonder why there’s road rage and all the problems ... that’s because it’s more reactive by officers than proactive,” he said. “A big part of law enforcement used to be proactive - being out there being seen and preventing crime. We need to make it more acceptable for folks to get into law enforcement and know that, God forbid, something happens to them their families will be taken care of.”

He advises new Labor Specialists become as educated on the issues as possible through various resources and courses put on by American Arbitration, MERC, and Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service. “They have an arbitrator that speaks at these sessions so it gives you insight what to look for and how to prepare a case and just listen to what people have to say and education, education is the tool,” Palmquist said. “It definitely helps with anything you do. The more you know, the better able you are to handle the situation.”

Just because they’re educated on the issues, however, he said, doesn’t make them experts in knowing what’s best for other units. “Make sure to listen to what people say both from our member’s standpoint and from the employer’s standpoint,” he said. “It’s a two-way street. You have to listen to both sides then, hopefully, come up with a resolution that works for everybody. One thing I learned, you cannot let your own interests interfere in the process of representing folks. You’re dealing with their interests and what the employer is trying to do. You should not be an interference to that process.”

He will miss the people he represents, his co-workers, mediators and arbitrators, and even some employer representatives. “I’m not going to miss the schedule - the time constraints, and the fact that we’re always rushing to have to make meetings and deal with more than one issue at a time,” Palmquist said. “You’ve got all these balls in the air and that can be a little stressful at times. In particular, with all this road construction going on, it’s difficult to get to places on time.”

Palmquist and his wife, Linda, are retiring at the same time. They sold their house in Southfield and plan to move to a home they’ve purchased in Lewiston. He’s looking forward to a relaxing retirement of traveling and fishing and “just kind of enjoy whatever remaining years of life we have,” he said. If Palmquist takes after his dad, Everett, who is 98 and living with his step-mother, that will be many more years to come.

Please RSVP to Julie Palmquist at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. for the Retirement Open House at 667 E. Big Beaver, Suite 109, Troy, MI 48083.