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Welcome home to the 10 members of Los Angeles County’s USA-02 Urban Search and Rescue Team following their safe return from Colombia.
Our team worked tirelessly alongside local and international partners to assist the people of Colombia following a devastating 7.2-magnitude earthquake that claimed more than 30 lives, affected thousands, and left hundreds trapped or unaccounted.
We are proud of our members for answering the call and bringing their training, professionalism, and dedication to communities in need. Our thoughts remain with the people of Colombia, the families who lost loved ones, and all those continuing to recover and rebuild in the aftermath of this devastating disaster.
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City PAC General Election Efforts
In preparation for the November general elections and the city council races across our jurisdictions, our City PAC team, led by Kurt Kobler, Christian Reynoso, and Tony Carcioppolo, has officially kicked off its election efforts.
These races are critically important to our members and the communities we serve. We need to elect city officials who understand and support firefighter issues, including wages, hours, working conditions, staffing, and the resources necessary to safely serve the public.
These interviews are especially pivotal in our fee-for-service cities, where elected officials can have a direct impact on our ability to maintain staffing and ensure there are no station closures. The right elected officials understand that keeping fire stations open is about more than just firefighters. It is about protecting the public and ensuring our communities have the emergency services they deserve.
We are also looking for elected officials who will support our contract efforts, including binding arbitration. So far, the response from the vast majority of candidates has been overwhelmingly positive. That support is consistent with what we continue to see in public opinion polls and hear directly from the citizens we serve. The public overwhelmingly supports their firefighters.
Over the next three weeks, your City PAC team will interview more than 200 candidates from over 45 cities. This is a tremendous undertaking, but it is also some of the most important work we do as a labor organization.
Political engagement is not separate from our union work. It is a core foundation of it. The decisions made by elected officials directly impact our wages, working conditions, staffing, station locations, resources, and ultimately our ability to protect the public.
We will continue doing the work necessary to make sure our voice is heard, our members are protected, and the communities we serve have the fire protection they deserve. |
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Negotiations are on hold for this week, as the County and the Union both had prior commitments. In fact, the Fire Chief and the CEO are working to run accurate numbers on our proposal items to determine the expense of those items and the total cost of the contract. The contract is in the tens of millions of dollars each year, and ongoing funding is required to pay for these items.
Local 1014 has worked very hard to take the general salary COLAs, which we work with all unions to set, and our individual proposal items that deal with our PEPRA and Tier 2 medical members to right some wrongs caused by PEPRA in wages, retirement, and medical coverage.
The Fire Chief has been officially briefed on the proposal items, and we are asking for his direct support and advocacy, as we have earned in the past with Chiefs like P. Michael Freeman, who supported our FFL bonus, the EMT bonus for FSAs, and the EMD bonus for Dispatchers.
We will need to continue to lobby the BOS, the CEO, and the Fire Chief for a finish. The Sheriff’s Deputies, Lifeguards, Fire, and Building Trades are the only unions still bargaining, and we all have outstanding items that we will not sign without.
The Fire Chief will be pressed for a position of support in the next couple of weeks, and we believe we have the deal points to earn his support, with a need for parity for our members in public safety and a proposal that is well within budget. We will let you all know where he stands after the meetings.
If he does not support us, he becomes a hurdle to contract settlement at that point.
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| MEASURE A - Binding Arbitration For Public Safety
This week we received our letter designation for the ballot; Measure A Binding Arbitration moves to the voters in November.
Binding or Interest Arbitration, if approved by the voters, will be a game changer for all future negotiations, and in fact, if the CEO , BOS, and Fire Chief continue to move slower than molasses on this contract, it could be used for this contract also.
With no ability to strike, and we would not want to strike, binding arbitration provides a powerful third-party neutral that could review and RULE on the last two proposal items in a contract negotiation, with ability to pay as the guiding force for the rulings.
The arbitrators have been favorable in their decisions statewide, usually because the Unions have good proposals that are well thought out, meet members' needs from a contract-ratification point of view, and, in fact, are fundable.
Stay tuned as we craft our messaging to the voting public and seek their support to give us a tool to get our contracts done in a timely manner, leaving our energy to serve the communities we work in and take care of our own lives as well.
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Fireground Communications: Keeping the NIOSH 5 Front and Center
The “NIOSH 5” represents five recurring safety issues that have contributed to firefighter injuries and line-of-duty deaths: improper risk assessment, lack of incident command, lack of accountability, failure to establish or follow SOPs/SOGs, and inadequate communications.
While these are not the only hazards firefighters face, they remain critical areas of focus, particularly radio and verbal communications on the fireground.
Local 1014 has heard from members across the desert, basin, and east end regarding increasing concerns about non-emergent radio traffic competing with or overriding communications from crews actively operating in the IDLH.
The Department has made significant investments in communications technology. Our new radios provide interoperability with other agencies and allow incidents to operate across Command and multiple Tactical channels. Tablet Command has also become an important accountability and situational-awareness tool. Local 1014 continues to advocate for expanding Tablet Command access beyond Chiefs and apparatus so Captains, and eventually other positions, can benefit from the same information. However, technology cannot replace radio discipline.
The primary concern raised by members involves radio traffic from personnel who are still responding to an incident interfering with crews already on scene.
First-arriving Engines, Trucks, Squads, and other companies may be conducting fire attack, ventilation, search, establishing divisions or groups, completing a 360, identifying hazards, requesting resources, and coordinating operations under extremely challenging conditions.
During these critical first minutes, their communications must take priority. The first-due Captain serves as the Incident Commander until command is formally transferred to an on-scene Battalion Chief through an appropriate radio or face-to-face transfer of command.
Personnel who have not yet arrived cannot see the conditions confronting crews inside the IDLH. Questions, unnecessary updates, requests to add units, or other non-emergent communications should never interfere with the Incident Commander or companies actively operating on the fireground. The same expectation must apply to everyone, regardless of rank.
Local 1014 believes several steps can improve fireground communications:
- Department-wide training on radio discipline for rank-and-file members, Chief Officers, and dispatch personnel.
- Reinforcing that on-scene fireground communications receive priority over non-emergent traffic.
- Recognizing the authority of the first-arriving Captain as Incident Commander until command is formally transferred.
- Utilizing Tactical channels appropriately for operational assignments while reserving Command for necessary command-level communications and information that must be monitored by LA.
- Reducing unnecessary repetition of information that has already been clearly transmitted and acknowledged.
- Ensuring technology such as Tablet Command supplements—not distracts from—the immediate priorities of establishing command, completing a 360, assigning companies, identifying needs, and managing the incident.
Local 1014 is also discussing with the Department whether an additional administrative radio channel could be assigned to incidents for non-emergent communications. For example, an incident operating on Command 40, Tac 64, Tac 68, and LAC RIC could potentially utilize another repeated channel for communications involving responding personnel who are not yet on scene.
Logistical considerations must be addressed, including channel availability, dispatch staffing, and whether the dispatcher assigned to the incident could effectively monitor an additional administrative channel. Those details require further discussion, but the objective is straightforward: protect the Command and Tactical channels needed by firefighters actively operating on the incident.
Local 1014 has also raised concerns regarding adequate training for personnel involved in managing incidents both on scene and within dispatch. Tablet Command is a valuable tool, but effective fireground communications also require a strong understanding of Incident Command, fireground priorities, and the realities confronting companies during the first critical minutes of an incident. That experience and training become especially important when conditions are rapidly changing and firefighters are operating in dangerous environments.
One thing remains clear: communications continue to be part of the NIOSH 5 for a reason. When communications break down, the consequences can be significant. Every Incident Commander and every firefighter operating on the fireground deserves clear Command and Tactical channels that allow them to safely perform their jobs without unnecessary interference.
Local 1014 is meeting with the Department regarding these health and safety concerns. Initial discussions with the Chief Deputy of Operations, experienced operational Chiefs, Captains, and other Department personnel have recognized the issue and demonstrated a willingness to work collaboratively toward solutions.
We will continue to keep members updated as those discussions progress. If you have experienced a fireground communication issue or have ideas that could improve radio operations, please contact a Local 1014 Director or email the Union.
Fireground safety is everyone's responsibility. Clear communications, disciplined radio use, and respect for Incident Command help ensure every member goes home safely. |
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AB 1383 – In the Senate for Consideration
Our benchmark pension reform bill, AB 1383, authored by Democratic Assembly Member Tina McKinnor from right here in our own backyard, with her district covering SoFi and surrounding neighborhoods, is now up for debate and discussion on the Senate Floor, with a vote scheduled in the next couple of weeks.
The bill has traveled through the Assembly and all subcommittees in both the Assembly and the Senate, and if the Senate moves the bill through with a supportive vote, it goes to the Governor for consideration. We now have anti-public pension adversaries lobbying Senators and the Governor not to support our bill.
We have come a long way and worked very hard to get this bill, which seeks to move the retirement age from 57 to 55, raise the cap on retirement limits, and make it permissible and legal for agencies to negotiate 3% at 55 for their members.
We have a long way to go and many hurdles to clear to get this across the finish line, but we remain cautiously optimistic about the path to law. The bill could be moved into suspense and held until the next legislative session, or it could go to the Governor, who could sign or veto it.
There are many paths to the finish on this, and we are working overtime, talking with our Senators and the Governor’s Office to educate all on our most important post-PEPRA reform bill.
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In Solidarity,
President Dave Gillotte and the Local 1014 Executive Board |
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