COHOES — Two northern Albany County firefighters claim in a federal lawsuit that they were denied career mobility for exercising union-protected speech.
Cohoes Fire Lts. George Primeau and Robert Johnson, both outspoken over staffing-related closures at a Cohoes station and ambulance response times, filed the lawsuit in the U.S. Northern District of New York on Feb. 2.
The litigation is intended, in part, to address “years of hostility” from Chief Joseph Fahd and Mayor Bill Keeler, who they accuse of withholding captaincy opportunities out of spite and ignoring civil service rules in the process…