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A lot happening right now!
We realize you have been inundated with informative e-mails lately; hopefully you are not overwhelmed. Your Executive Board is handling many issues right now and we want to make sure you are well informed.
The last two weeks have been exceptionally busy. We have received many communications regarding the video message that was transmitted to all members, the many disappointments regarding the first part of the new hire test process as well as EA-120. We continue to deal with the cell tower issue and the Auditor Controllers investigation that was brought on by a newspaper article that was generated by a member of our Fire Department.
We want to make sure every one of our members understands that your Executive Board is committed to protect every member's rights. Your Executive Board will be there everyday, as we have been since the beginning of this great Union, to represent you at every avenue. We will be there for health and safety issues, discipline representation, negotiations and anything else that has to do with wages, hours and working conditions.
As we have said many times in the past, it is our honor to represent you everyday.
Cell towers
As we reported Tuesday night, the L.A. County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to halt construction of cell towers at any County fire station where either the residents or the employees who live and work at that station have expressed health and safety concerns. Construction should have stopped, as per ET-119, immediately at your station. If you see any ongoing construction, please call Local 1014 immediately to file a report. The contractors may be on site to secure the construction site but again NO construction should happen.
With hundreds of millions of dollars in Federal funding - and a huge private contract - at stake, there is still a possibility that construction will be restarted. We will stay vigilant in our demand that no toxic towers be constructed at our fire stations. To accomplish our goal, we are continuing to educate contract cities and pressure the Board of Supervisors. We are also providing support to our brothers and sisters at LA Fire - represented by UFLAC - who also oppose the LA-RICS towers at their stations. We will be educating our allies in Washington, D.C., who had good intentions when providing funding for this project but were kept unaware of LA-RICS' sneaky attempt to circumvent environmental regulations by installing the towers at our fire stations.
We will keep you all apprised of ongoing developments.
Cell tower information can be found here or by logging into the 1014 website and follow the link on the left hand side under member resources titiled cell tower information.
Click on the links below to see some news coverage of the cell towers.
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"The proximity of the towers and people living next to the towers is of grave concern," said David Gillotte, union president of Firefighters Local 1014. "It's a very complex issue how those radio issues affect people, all the way up to three miles away. There are health and safety issues that need to be discussed openly with the public."
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"And the Los Angeles County Fire Department 100 percent supports LA-RICS". Fire Chief Daryl Osby said.
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Negotiations:
We recently had our first meeting and will be having our second meeting the week of March 30th. We are scheduled to begin negotiations together with the Coalition of County Unions (CCU) for Fringe Benefits (Choices, Horizons, Plan, etc.) on April 15.
As we have said we have high hopes for these negotiations and we will be at the table with creative ideas. We all know that we deserve a salary increase and we look forward to working with the County to meet our needs as well as theirs.
Contract negotiation updates can be found here or by logging into the 1014 website and follow the link on the left hand side under member resources titled contract negotiations update.
To help with upcoming negotiations (1014's and the CCU's) we would ask you to please follow this link and fill out a short survey. This is a secure site and your personal information will not be shared.
EA-120:
As we said earlier, we will make sure our member's rights are upheld. EA-120 affects some, but not all, members of 1014. If something affects ANY members of 1014, there is a process of Meet and Confer to issues like this, and that process has not happened. We will be addressing this with Chief Osby VERY soon.
ET-127:
You may have read this transmittal in regards to the testing process. We have heard numerous complaints about the entire process and the lack of integrity of the exam process. All we can ask is that you please continue to send any and all instances of missteps that happened to you and we will make sure those are passed on to the appropriate people. We are not interested in what you heard, because we too have heard some horrible stories, we need to continue with the facts of what happened. We have complied an ever-growing list at this point but are interested in hearing how our members, and people that they know were affected. Please continue to e-mail your experience’s to info@local1014.org
Auditor Controller:
As we all know by now, there has been accusations of cheating on the Fire Fighter entrance exam, especially the oral portion, from past exams dating back to 2007. The Auditor Controller has interviewed less than 40 members of Local 1014. As we all heard recently the Fire Chief had made some serious threats in relation to the intended discipline of our members. Rest assured, we are prepared for whatever course of action he takes. At this time the Fire Chief has only told the new media what he plans to do in the near future. Rest assured we will be there for our members as we have been in the past and we will continue to do in the future.
Thank you for your continued support.
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