Your Local 1014 Board continues to be actively engaged in negotiations over the past several weeks.

Unfortunately, just as we thought key budget and property tax numbers were settled, the CEO and Fire Department have shifted them once again. It’s become increasingly clear that the numbers continue to be manipulated to fit whatever narrative they want to present. At the table, it was even remarked that they seem to be using "common core math"—just getting close enough to justify their position.

This ongoing shell game with the numbers is unacceptable.

Local 1014 has brought forward a solid proposal, including ideas that are either cost-neutral or would generate savings—potentially over $50 million annually—while also providing enhanced benefits to our members. We believe in cutting fair deals where everyone wins.

Unfortunately, the CEO has shown little interest in pursuing innovative solutions that would result in a mutually beneficial contract. Even the most basic issue—a fair cost-of-living increase—has been met with resistance, showing a continued lack of respect and value for our members.

On a slightly positive note, we’ve made modest progress on some language and minor items that benefit our membership. We also continue to push for items that benefit our Plan C members. 

We will continue to keep you updated as negotiations evolve. But if things don’t begin to move in the right direction soon, be prepared to rise up and take action when called upon—so we can secure the contract that our members have earned and deserve. 

VEHICLE ACCIDENT DISCIPLINE AND DRIVER SAFETY COMMITTEEWORK UPDATE 

The Union continues to work hard to help the Department address the ongoing vehicle and apparatus accident dilemma.  We all recognize that vehicle accidents put our members and the public in harm's way and contribute to budget deficit and operational disadvantage by keeping us all in reserve rigs that are considered vintage at this point.  As a matter of fact, one of the leading causes of injury and death to firefighters is vehicle accidents responding to and from emergency incidents.  The IAFF has dedicated many hours of advocacy and training in this area of our work.  

The Union and Department have launched a joint effort through a newly formed Labor-Management Committee, led by Captain Orr and Director Aaron Katon. This initiative focuses on practical, job-specific training related to defensive driving, Code 3 operations, and fostering a safe driving culture. Unlike generic or unrelated online modules, this program is grounded in real-world application and the demands of the job.

Despite limited staffing and resources, Captain Orr and Director Katon have worked tirelessly to bring this program to life, and their dedication has been instrumental in advancing this important effort. We extend our sincere thanks to both of them for their leadership and commitment.

This last week, President Gillotte, Chief Marrone and President Crum from Lifeguards LACOLA, and others completed filming a video to go along with this training. We look forward to the release of the training to help us change course. 

In addition the committee is working to resurrect the VARB or the modern version of such.  This would be a labor management committee to review vehicle accidents for facts and information on how they could be prevented, and if they are an accident or did violation of policy of negligence drive the accident. Review is important to track trends, isolated extreme issues and also to drive education vs. discipline in the aggregate.  

Now the second part of the equation, the discipline track the Department has gone down.   The Department took a path of mass discipline as the only tool they could figure out with a rise in the number of vehicle accidents and commensurate expenditures and loss of equipment for operations.  While we believe this to have been driven primarily by risk managers or attorneys from County Counsel, the singular path of discipline is not only wrong but as statistics would prove, has NO IMPACT on numbers and types of accidents.  The Department once again had become deficient in proper and contemporary training with regard to defensive and code 3 driving.  The need for both targeted and appropriate discipline for the rare instances of repetitive and malicious driving without due regard to policy, and the need for education in an ongoing and in response to accidents that will happen in our trade are part of the equation.  

The Department started issuing mass discipline to all vehicle accidents with no real review of the facts or any driver training issues.  We have been taking every case brought to us to hearing and prevailing, and most are accidents that should have a path of travel to the notice of instruction or letter of warning/reprimand and retraining. Still, most have resulted in at least one shift suspension without pay, regardless of the offense.  Also uncovered is the disparate treatment deep ending on what Bureau you work in, with Central Operations in the lead for mass harsh unfounded discipline even relying on the EVOC training in hearings as “VALID TRAINING” for defensive driving and code 3 driver training.  Perhaps those in charge of signing the letters of suspension have never taken the online EVOC training, but not only are they ridiculous in form and content, and often not related to our policies, but even worse they are in direct conflict with our policies.  This is also being addressed with a path of Unfair Labor Practice charges relating to disparate treatment in the discipline.  

We are calling on the Department Bureau Chiefs to pause all blanket discipline as we embark on this positive and integral part of training and education and to regroup going forward so that discipline takes its rightful roll in part not whole for vehicle accident-related cases,  while we also work to improve member safety and reduce budget issues and operational issues with rigs in the shops.   

Lastly, a big thank you to our shops mechanics and staff, and field mechanics and staff who work constantly to make our lives better keeping our ailed equipment in good working order for us.  They are desperately understaffed, and with issues related to warranty and budget always asked to do more with less, and they deliver.  We will be working on this next, along with their Union to ensure they get the resources they need to keep us running like we need and to get back to a place where the shops and our equipment run like they should.  

MEASURE E UPDATE - FIRE CHIEF PROPOSES FIRST-YEAR EXPENDITURES WITH MULTI-YEAR IMPACT 

Local 1014 and you, the membership, crafted a relationship and a deal with the communities we serve to increase their parcel taxes to provide the first-ever substantial funding increase for our Fire District in over 30 years.  That deal comes with a responsibility to ensure the funds expended will be spent with the priorities the public drives and, in our collective assessment, are the priorities needed to move our Department and our service levels to where they need to be.  

The recent fires highlighted the need to assess all aspects of our department operations to ensure we have the staffing and the tools and equipment to do our jobs. Measure E can be spent on the following items: 

1.  Hiring, training, and certifying additional firefighters and paramedics
2. Communications and Information Technology Systems 
3. Facilities 
4. Vehicles and aircraft 
5. Life-saving rescue tools 
6. Wildfire protection 
7. Emergency response tools and infrastructure. 

The Department Proposal is a start to crafting that initial and some ongoing expenditure, but Local 1014 opposes the current proposal in form. We are moving to give not only our input, but to work over the next two weeks to get to a place of joint labor-management support for an edited version of the plan with some shifting of priorities in spending each year.  

We think that while a new Fire Hawk is important, so too is an appropriate number of engines moving from 3-0 staffing to 4-0 staffing is also of import and the Fire Chief has come up short in support for you… for us… for service to the communities we serve in the initial proposal.  In addition there are no provisions for new dispatchers despite an ever-increasing call volume and apparatus and equipment on the roads needs a greater level of upfront support, as does our dispatch center and comm’s equipment.  We have sent a letter to the BOS and seek two weeks to get details worked out and we are confident we can get to a place of mutual support before we communicate back with the public.  The item is set for the June 10th BOS meeting, and we’ll update you as we testify at the meeting and have ongoing discussions with the Chief. 

Thank you to all who put forth the effort when we worked so hard to craft this deal with those we serve, and we will be ever vigilant in holding accountable the Department to the tenants of that deal.