A labor arbitrator has ordered the Rhode Island Airport Corporation to reinstate Steven Parent, the union president it fired from T.F. Green International Airport’s fire department in October 2024, and to compensate him for nearly two years of lost wages and benefits. The 67-page award found that the corporation failed to establish just cause for termination and had effectively reached its decision before giving Parent a meaningful chance to respond.
The ruling is significant beyond one employee because the Rhode Island Airport Corporation is a state-created public corporation responsible for operating T.F. Green and five general-aviation airports. Parent leads Local 2873 of AFSCME Council 94, which represents airport police officers and firefighters. The award directs the corporation to remove termination references from his personnel record, treat his service as continuous and make him whole, subject to offsets for interim earnings and unemployment benefits, according to the Rhode Island Current’s account.
The dispute began when airport officials accused Parent of discouraging firefighter applicants and benefiting from overtime created by vacancies. Arbitrator Sheila Mayberry concluded that the corporation did not prove those claims. Her decision says management did not review the overtime evidence needed to substantiate the alleged scheme and raised part of its theory only during arbitration. It also notes that a supervisor had praised Parent for helping fill staffing gaps. Parent had worked at the airport for more than a decade before the firing.
Reinstatement is not yet the final word. The airport corporation filed a Superior Court complaint in 2025 seeking a declaration that it could refuse to return Parent to duty over a separate allegation that he entered an airport fire station without authorization after his dismissal. Parent has said he went there to retrieve the union contract. Judge Brian Stern later stayed that case while the contractual grievance moved through arbitration.
Airport spokesperson Bill Fisher said the corporation views the security allegation as unresolved and expects the court to decide whether Parent may return. That distinction matters: the arbitrator decided whether the 2024 termination met the labor agreement’s just-cause standard, while the pending lawsuit asks whether later conduct permits the corporation to resist reinstatement. The two proceedings therefore overlap in practical effect without deciding precisely the same legal question.
The case also arrives after airport workers ratified a three-year contract in March 2025, following a period of strained labor relations. That agreement covered the bargaining unit but did not resolve Parent’s individual grievance or the later court dispute.
The financial amount is not fixed in the award. Parent estimated that back pay and benefits could reach $350,000, but the arbitrator required deductions for other income and applicable benefits. The final liability will depend on those calculations and on what happens in Superior Court. For Rhode Islanders, the immediate result is a major reversal for a public airport employer, paired with continuing uncertainty over when—or whether—the union leader will resume duty.
