The town of Georgia's fire department is now seven members short. One firefighter quit and six others were asked to turn in their equipment Friday afternoon.
The firefighter flap started at a meeting last October when members of the department were asked to sign a new confidentiality agreement.
"We, in October, were told we had to sign a policy that we could only speak about certain things in the fire service that we find out about in the fire service if we have permission from our chief," said Chris Gonyeau, former firefighter.
Fire Chief Keith Baker was not at that meeting; the acting chief decided to table the issue until the chief could be present.
In January, the six say they were notified that they were in breach of discipline for not signing that policy in October. At the same time, some members of the fire department were also talking about unionizing.
"Technically we have signed the union cards and we have been practicing as such for many months in the process of filing paperwork with the labor board to form the union. We have notified the town and they are aware of it," said Gonyeau.
But the town isn't talking.