A long-running battle between the Jefferson Parish East Bank Consolidated Firefighters’ Union and the Parish President has escalated, shifting from a pay dispute to a legal showdown over employee free speech and social media conduct.

After more than a year and a half of fighting for a pay raise, the conflict boiled over following a controversial social media post allegedly made by a firefighter. Parish President Cynthia Lee Sheng pointed to the post—which appeared to portray parish employees as snakes and carried the caption, “If their shirt has a bird... don't believe a word"—as evidence that the union’s actions had "gone too far."

“I was embarrassed by much of it because these, at the end of the day, are still parish employees who are getting paid by taxpayers’ monies and they’re not a

See Full Page