Until our contract is supported and TA’d we ask that all members continue to “work to the rule” and do nothing voluntarily above and beyond their regular job duties.  Serve the community as always to the highest level each and every day, and participate in all things mandated for our licenses and certifications, such as EMT and PM CE and online training mandated for continued certification to work, but nothing else. 

To clarify, this means everything at this time. Explorer and recruitment events and meetings, rank and file fire series members teaching EMT or PM to augment the shortage in staffing from EMS, Recruit Training Academies, Committee’s, FGS and FFL training, all online training except that which is mandated and all other voluntary services beyond your normal job duties.  We know this is uncomfortable for our members and equally for the department, and rightfully so until our contract is settled. 

We have already seen the tension mount with pressure to help with things of convenience like CERT training, recruitment events, explorer meetings, and other work that is being handled by the Training Services Section and Recruitment Section as well as some committee work that involves equipment or policy work.  We ask that our members, in solidarity, cease every ounce of extra work temporarily until we get our rightfully deserved TA on our contract.   

If any member is pressured to handle work by any chief officer, remember, “WORK NOW, GRIEVE LATER”. Follow orders then call the Union so we can call for written direct orders for anything that management is trying to get done on our backs.  This is not an easy time for any of us, and most officers have been in contact with the Union on a regular basis as we all navigate this time together and we work it out.  However, some chief officers have been trying to force or pressure members to simply do the extra work. 

RUNNING RECRUIT CLASS 169 NOW -  A BAD DECISION BY THE ADMINISTRATION 

One such example is the unconscionable move by the Department to forcibly move forward with scheduling Recruit Class 169 on a time schedule that is not only cleverly timed to push on our bargaining but also clearly driven by less than genuine motives.  

The Fire Chief has sent out letters to recruits, INCLUDING APPELLANTS FROM CLASS 167, the now infamous class where our department leadership failed our recruit training captains and staff, failed the recruits who remained in the class, and sent every cadre instructor back to the field mid-academy.  Their actions left a huge scar. Now the wounds will be fresh with the poor decision to start this class now and include all the appellants without finishing the investigation. We believe the investigation will clearly show the integrity of our training cadre members and that every recruit sent down the hill from Class 167 failed to meet our minimum standards. 

We are asking for all recruit training cadre members who received letters that ambiguously suggest they report to a 40-hour work week to run Recruit Class 169 to decline the offer. This will allow review of the recruit issue and put us likely well past a settled contract.  

The Interim Fire Chief has been put on notice about this issue. We gave a complete solution to simply postpone the tower by a couple of months to allow for a comprehensive review regarding RC 167.  The decision to move this class forward has been done on the Fire Chief’s authority. We are asking for justification for the actions to place these recruits who failed out of the tower back in RC 169.  We cannot have a system in place where recruits can simply claim injury or bias and be given automatic re-entry into our drill towers. 

Our position is simply that each and every injury or appeal be reviewed by the Fire Chief and that the Fire Chief justify every re-entry to allow a second chance to finish the training successfully.  We have also pushed hard and garnered agreement for post-tower physical assessments and pre-tower physical assessments that recruits would have to pass in order to get a start date.  The Department has failed to implement this one very important tool to ensure candidates are ready to do the work and succeed and will prevent injury for those who are not ready as we have seen continuously in the past few years.  

We are assessing whether to file an unfair labor charge and will continue to pursue delaying of the tower with the Interim Fire Chief.  We are hopeful he will see the wisdom to review all aspects of this decision, including the impact on bargaining and work with us to address the problems before starting a new class.