Good Friday the 13th Sisters and Brothers of Local 1014!
State Legislative Update
Today marks the last day of the current legislative session in Sacramento. Our CPF lobbyists and local affiliates from throughout the state have been busy tracking votes and working amendments to advance and protect our membership. The following bills are all part of the legislative package we are working to get voted on and signed into law by the Governor:
- SB 542 Post Traumatic Stress Injury (PTSI) Presumption (introduced by Local 1014),
- AB 1116 PEER Support Confidentiality,
- AB 1544 Community Paramedicine,
- SB 438 911 Public Fire Dispatch Protection,
- SB 266 Retiree Pension Protection, and
- ACA 1 Funding for Local Public Safety.
We will update you on our efforts as the legislative session comes to a close and as we see movement on these bills.
Budget Deliberations
Local 1014 has also been very busy on the home front. President Gillotte met with Chief Osby again this week to address the many issues facing our membership. The number one topic of discussion was the budget shortfall and its potential impact on our members. Priorities like turnouts, TI’s, apparatus, equipment, and staffing are all priority items to protect.
We have scheduled a labor-management budget meeting to prioritize by agreement the items that need to be funded. We will keep you posted as we work to protect our important working condition items. We also laid into the Department heavily on E 233 and a second squad in the Antelope Valley. We now finally have movement to get this done and in place ASAP. The Chief agreed it has been far too long and gave orders to the Chief Deputy of Operations to move it into service.
Trial Shift Schedule Change Committee
The Trial Shift Schedule Change Committee has been selected and will be getting to work over the next 30 days with Committee Chair Dave Morse and Co-Chair Jason Green heading up the project. Following the Committee's work, we will be going to a ballot vote to ask whether our membership wants a trial shift schedule change. The type of schedule will be the topic of the Committee's work and we will keep you informed as that work progresses. Whether you are pro or con on a trial schedule change of any kind, get ready to vote when the time comes. We want as many voices and votes as we can get.
Staffing
Long-term staffing push and the hiring to accomplish it is in full swing with Local 1014 at the table to push for an abbreviated drill tower and back to back concurrent classes to get the Firefighter Paramedic folks out and into the field. The PM classes are going as scheduled and these recruits will be going into Firefighter positions. They will have the ability to work “P” but priority to existing senior members for PM post positions will apply.
Also, the written test was given for entry-level Firefighters. We will be pushing for at least 3 classes in 2020. We have a valid written exam in place and which will allow the FSA Internal Promotional Process (i.e. Bridge Program) to get back in full swing. We are also continuing to evaluate every 30 days the effectiveness of the short-term fixes we negotiated last month. Please keep us informed on what is working and what is not.
603/604 Contract Negotiations
Our asks for the hard-working brothers and sisters in Dispatch, Forestry, Health Haz Mat and Fire Prevention have been taken directly to the Fire Chief for his support on the last few items to give our members a fair and appropriate contract for their hard work. We have asked for support from the Chief for a special bonus structure for each unit totaling only $950,000 in a $1.2 billion budgeted department. The Fire Chief knows the issues and the value of our members and we will be fighting hard to get his support as well as the CEO's support.
We will keep you posted as we seek to get this table done in the next couple of weeks. We are prepared to fight all the way to the Board of Supervisors and mediation if necessary. We will not put forward a contract that does not value all of our members. We look for a good outcome on this table very soon. Safety series and non-Safety series, we are all one--Local 1014 Strong.
Payroll
Local 1014 Executive Board has been working exhaustively with the Department to ensure that our retro payment to our members is true, accurate, and complete. The August 30 pay warrant included monies due to personnel that worked alternative overtime during the retro period. This included working down and working from 56 to 40 hours and vice versa. The tiered Paramedic post position bonus up to 2% is still due for the retro period as well as the peer counselor bonuses.
We are working continuously with the Auditor-Controller, the Chief Executive Office and management regarding the implementation of all other pending bonuses. It is a huge undertaking in coordination with Department personnel to determine who is eligible for these monies and when they became eligible. This will be a timely process but please be assured but the money due to our members will come and be retroactive to October 1, 2018.
Planning for the Future in 2020
Finally, we continue our work with Fire Chief Osby, Supervisor Janice Hahn and the Board of Supervisors to evaluate the possibility of increasing funding for our Department in 2020 to provide for infrastructure, equipment, and most exciting, staffing! We are making the push to move to 4-0 staffing on all of our rigs to meet national standards and make our working conditions better and safer.
At this point, we can report that the work we have been doing to test funding possibilities is very positive. We will be going forward boldly to get this done, the question is only how and when. This will be a Local 1014 legacy item of which we can all be proud. Like Proposition E and our special fire tax, it will take work and money, but it will be well worth it in the end.
As always, be safe and we will keep you up to date on the work as it progresses this next month.
In Solidarity,
