The City of Evanston filed an unfair labor practice with the Illinois Labor Relations Board against firefighters union Local 742, city community information coordinator Eric Palmer announced earlier this week.

The suit came in response to negotiations that began December 2009 for a successor to a contract between the city and Local 742 set to expire in February 2010. The city claims the union wanted to “negotiate the level of services provided by the City.” After City Manager Wally Bobkiewicz ordered the layoff of three firefighters, the union wanted to seek an arbitrator to take control over department staffing levels away from the City Council.

In the city’s basis of charge they wrote “the Union wanted to negotiate the level of services provided by the City and lock down minimum staffing to maintain the level of service.” The city upholds that an employer doesn’t have a duty to bargain over “matters of inherent managerial policy.”