CPF Special Convention
Updated
On: Jan 16, 2012 (07:38:00)
"It's Official" here we go!
President Gillotte, CPF Executive Board, Local 1014 Executive Board, and 400 plus Union leaders pass resolutions to tool up for war to protect our voice. If Paycheck protection passes, we will be prohibited from participating in any form of political action, and will effectively lose any voice or power to bargain, elect those who care about us and more....translation-they will come for our pensions and healthcare first, then our salaries and working conditions next. We have fought so hard to establish all we have, and let us not give it all up now.
The Special Convention Body unanimously voted to put off the regularly scheduled CPF Convention until 2013 and also assess ourselves $10.00 per member, per month to fund the fight. In an Alliance with other Unions and stakeholders we will fight. We have been in close contact with these other organizations since we formed an alliance back in 2005 when then Governor Schwarzenegger called the special election and put forth, among other bad ideas, Prop 75. That initiative was designed to do the same thing as this new initiative, eliminate your voice.
The 1014 Executive Board will be reaching out to all members to educate and enroll support to work the phones, work the streets and press conferences to do our part and more to see the state to victory. Stay tuned for more information, sign up to receive web-blasts and get ready to rumble.
Local 1014 Executive Board
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President Gillotte speaking to the convention delegates
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CPF Pipes and Drums
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From the CPF website (http://cpf.org):
Determination and Commitment Unites Delegates at CPF Special Convention
Facing down an unprecedented anti-labor agenda sweeping toward California, delegates at this week’s California Professional Firefighters Special Convention committed to an all out fight against those who would steal the firefighter voice at the ballot box and the bargaining table.
The 2012 CPF Special Convention was called late last year amid the looming threat of a November initiative that would silence the voices of firefighters and working families. The Paycheck Deception initiative seeks to block the voluntary collection of dues through payroll deduction, while protecting the political muscle of corporate CEOs and the super rich.
“If our union voice is silenced, we stand to lose everything – our retirement, our workplace safety, our bargaining rights … even our jobs,” said Hayward Firefighters president Jason Livermore. “We can’t afford to lose this fight.”
More than 330 delegates, chosen by their individual firefighter locals, participated in the one-day convention. They heard about the real threats posed to the lives and livelihoods of firefighters from IAFF leaders on the front lines in the national assault on working men and women. In Ohio, firefighters helped lead a successful campaign to overturn a law abolishing collective bargaining.
“When (Ohio Gov.) John Kasich tried to take out labor, he didn’t just throw in the kitchen sink – he tried to take the whole kitchen,“ said Mark Sanders, president of Ohio Assn. of Professional Fire Fighters. “We won a historic victory in Ohio, but it was not easy -- we were fighting for our existence as we know it, and it took everything we had to beat it.”
In Wisconsin, firefighters joined forces with tens of thousands of public workers in noisy protest against that state’s anti-bargaining law. Despite its suspect legal foundation, the law remains in effect, and has resulted in massive layoffs, slashed pay and benefits and a deterioration of public safety.
“We know what it’s like to have things we’ve worked years for taken away,” said Madison (Wisconsin) Firefighters President Joe Conway. “For us, this is not about what might happen if we lose our voice … it’s what has happened.”
Much of the scapegoating of firefighters and other public workers comes at a time when corporate CEOs continue to make eight- and nine-digit salaries. As chair of the bipartisan Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, former state treasurer Phil Angelides saw corporate abuses up close, and said silencing labor’s voice allows these abuses to go unchecked.
“They don’t want to change the system,” said Angelides. "They want to change the subject.”
Voters in California have twice rejected Paycheck Deception laws, most recently in the 2005 with the defeat of then-Gov. Schwarzenegger’s Proposition 75. CPF President Lou Paulson warned delegates that the current version is cleverly drafted to give the appearance of balanced reform.
“Corporations don’t collect dues – they collect profits,” said Paulson. “They’ll get to continue dipping into profits to buy influence, but union members won’t be able to pool their resources to match. That’s why it’s called Paycheck Deception.”
In sounding the alarm, Paulson and IAFF General President Harold Schaitberger pointed to four decades of progress in building pay, pensions, firefighter presumptions, death and disability benefits … even decent PPE and the Firefighters Bill of Rights.
“Nobody gave us these benefits because we’re nice guys,” said Schaitberger. “We won them because your union had a strong, proud, united voice in politics.”
“This is a fight we simply can’t afford to lose,” concluded Paulson. “At this convention, firefighters are taking a stand – we are in it to win it.”
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