Boston Mayor Thomas Menino called for random alcohol and other drug testing after tests revealed that a pair of firefighters who died in a fire may have been impaired, but the firefighters' union has refused to agree to testing without other concessions, the Boston Globe reported Jan. 16.

The dispute led to the union threatening to picket Menino's State of the City address this week, although they later backed off. Still, Menino used the speech as an opportunity to blast the union leadership for demanding a pay raise in exchange for drug testing.

"These union leaders do not seem to realize what everyone in this city knows, that it is not right to ask for pay raises as a reward for putting a stop to these abuses of the public trust," he said.

Union leaders, meanwhile, accused the city of being "engaged in a plot" to disrupt an internal investigation into the deaths of firefighters Paul Cahill and Warren Payne in a August 2007 fire at a West Roxbury restaurant. An autopsy showed that Cahill's blood-alcohol content at the time of his death was .27 percent, while Payne had traces of cocaine in his body.

"The city is trying to manipulate the independent report, thus revictimizing the families who have had to endure a horribly tragic event," said Edward Kelly, president of Boston Firefighters Local 718. Kelly contended that the autopsy report did not indicate that either of the dead firefighters were impaired on the job.

Cities like Chicago, New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore already require firefighters to undergo random alcohol and other drug testing.