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Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!
December 2015
From my house, my firehouse, and our Union House...Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to you and your families. From the bottom of my heart and on behalf of a remarkable crew of Union Board members, we finally take short pause to reflect, remember and enjoy the fruits of our labor as we celebrate the season with our loved ones, or for some of us with our Firehouse Families.
This year has been an incredible year on all fronts with Local 1014 Members experiencing so many highs and lows. The greatness of our job was and always has been humbled by the sacrifice of some...we shall never forget.
We are blessed to be LA County Firefighters, and specifically Local 1014 Members. I include all of our Local 1014 Members in Dispatch, Heavy Equipment, Health Haz-Mat, Forestry, Camps, and those many Chief Officers who have not forgotten where they came from and remain in the Brotherhood and Sisterhood with strong purpose. We salute you all. We have all worked hard to get it done.
We finished the year with excellent pay increases and more benefit days and special bonus' pay and many other contractual items that others statewide will not see. We should be proud and we worked hard politically and literally to make it happen. Your Executive Board logged countless hours, many late nights and lost family time to make it happen. I thank them and if you see them please do the same. The old guys, the new guys...everyone working together to deliver the goods. I am thankful to them because the results impact my family also. They work hard for us. I am just the quarterback of the team that grinds the work out and delivers the work product. I am proud to be a part of the whole deal.
Does that mean everything is golden, everything is all good? Certainly not. We have many things to continue to grind on to make our workplace the top job in the nation. While we will continue to work with the Department where and when we can, it is clear that now that we are done with contracts and pay and benefits for the next three years, we will now have to concentrate on the running of the fire department and the policies and practices that can be improved. We give credit to the Fire Chief and Department where they have met us and worked to make very positive change occur. We will continue to work with the Chief and Department in those areas. However, it is clear and the Fire Chief has acknowledged in writing, much work needs to be done to court our full potential for greatness on our job.
The new year will be a year to grow our Union resources with technology, Regional General Membership Meetings and education and deeper involvement of the membership in issues affecting us and our families. Specifically a few areas include holding the Chief and his staff accountable for the service and quality of work we deserve from Payroll in getting us paid accurately, staffing to levels that allow us to accomplish our mission and also maintain our lifestyle and family lives. Words will not accomplish these tasks. Actions will define the work to produce results from the Fire Chief and his "Executive Team".
We all answer to the citizens we serve and the elected officials who represent those we serve. We have worked hard to establish long term relationships with the communities and the representatives in our first in, and the Department will either listen to our collective voice and work hard to achieve our common goals of excellence on the job and in our communities, or wake up to a reality of political and literal "Loverage" to change their course. "Loverage is leverage with a little love...". It is real and is our strength to accomplish much for our members and for the folks we serve day in and day out.
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays as we close out a remarkable year, with so much to do in 2016! Celebrate responsibly and love on each other. These are words from a dive bar at the end of a hard ass day to close out Union work for you, for us.
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Sincerely,
Dave Gillotte
President
Los Angeles County Fire Fighters IAFF Local 1014
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