The D.C. firefighters union has scored a significant victory after an arbitrator’s ruling that a sudden reassignment of the union’s chief was meant as payback for speaking out against the department last year.

“I find that the real reason was to retaliate against Capt. [Edward] Smith for engaging in union activity as president of Local 36, the exclusive collective bargaining rep of the department’s employees,” wrote arbitrator Leonard Wagman, who ordered that Smith be reinstated to his prior post of five years at Rescue Squad 1.