Los Angeles County Firefighters IAFF Local 1014

Representing over 3200 Firefighters, Paramedics, Dispatchers,
Pilots, Wildland Firefighters, Forestry and Health Haz Mat Personnel

FRIDAY UPDATE 
 

Brothers and Sisters, 

El Paso Strong - these words mean so much.  El Paso Firefighters are one of the strongest and most resilient memberships in our International Association of Fire Firefighters (IAFF).  

It was an honor to respond as part of a 31-member task force of IAFF trained peers, including members from LA County, LA City, Oxnard, Heartland Fire, Arizona, and FDNY, to compliment the 11-member peer team from IAFF Local 51 - El Paso Firefighters. 

Brother and President Joe Tellez thanked President Gillotte and the LA County Peer Support Members as part of the team that responded to 35 Fire Stations, 3 shifts, over 1,000 personnel, the Medical Examiner's Office, Dispatch, Command and Training Centers to debrief and provide peer and clinician resources for all involved in the incident. 

Our LA County Peer Support Teams are specifically trained through the IAFF and the International Critical Incident Stress Foundation (ICISF) to help First Responders cope with mass-casualty incidents. This is one of the characteristics which makes our program uniquely qualified to help our brothers and sisters as they work to recover from this incident. 

The binational town of El Paso is 85% Latino and Spanish speaking. El Paso Firefighters are proud and deeply dedicated to the community they serve. They embraced our national support and brotherhood and sisterhood as we did our work. 

Behavioral health and post-traumatic stress injuries (PTSI) are common following a response of this magnitude. Ensuring that Firefighters and First Responders have the tools to recognize and respond to signs and symptoms of these injuries is key to keeping folks healthy and getting them back to work to continue to help others as they move toward healing. 

On a personal note, I would like to convey how proud I am of our Executive Board and our membership for always stepping up to handle jobs like this as we help our brothers and sisters nationwide.  I also want to thank our Fire Chief Daryl Osby and members of his executive staff for supporting this operation with our personnel.  Chief Osby has communicated to me the importance of helping others, who one day might help us.   

God Bless the Firefighters and citizens of El Paso, Texas. Please keep them in your thoughts and prayers.

 

In Solidarity,

President Dave Gillotte and your Executive Board

Los Angeles County Firefighters IAFF Local 1014

Representing over 3200 Firefighters, Paramedics, Dispatchers,
Pilots, Wildland Firefighters, Forestry and Health Haz Mat Personnel

FRIDAY UPDATE 
 

Brothers and Sisters, 

This week has been a difficult week for our nation. Last weekend we learned of two mass shootings within 24-hours in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio. Our thoughts and prayers are with the families and communities affected by these senseless tragedies as well as with the First Responders and their families as they work to help these communities heal. 

Local 1014 has reached out to union leaders across the nation to offer assistance. Our LA County Peer Support Team is being deployed to El Paso, Texas next week as part of a large International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF) response to both incidents. Our team will be going station to station with the Firefighters and First Responders who responded to this horrific scene. 

Our LA County Peer Support Teams are specifically trained through the IAFF and the International Critical Incident Stress Foundation (ICISF) to help first responders cope with mass-casualty incidents. This is one of the characteristics which makes our program uniquely qualified to help our brothers and sisters as they work to recover from this incident. 

Local 1014 would like to thank Fire Chief Daryl Osby for consistently supporting our efforts to provide behavioral health assistance to other departments in need. We have and will continue to receive the same national support through the IAFF and the International Association of Fire Chiefs (IAFC) for Los Angeles County Firefighters and our families when we need it.  

On a personal note, while I have been on many incidents of this magnitude as your President, I am particularly honored to respond not only as an IAFF liaison but also as a front line peer.  We will be doing great work and our local leadership will be able to represent that work to elected officials and the public to ensure funding and support continues for our mission to protect the wellbeing of our members and members nationally.   

Fringe Benefits

Last week, all members received the $500 signing bonus and one-time 12 additional holiday hours for use or cash out. This money is in addition to the negotiated salary raises. This is the direct result of our negotiations as part of the Coalition of County Unions (CCU). Please check you last paystubs from 7/31/19. If you did not receive it, call the union office. 

The CCU negotiates benefits separately from wages and unit-specific working conditions in partnership with the ten diverse unions, including our Firefighters, deputy sheriffs, doctors, engineers, probation officers, building and construction trades workers. For more than 30 years, we have negotiated a fringe benefits contract including our medical, dental, sick leave, vacation, and retirement benefits, with the CCU in order to get the best benefits for our members. 

603/604 Contract Negotiations 

We continue negotiations with the County for our 603/604 Bargaining Unit members, which includes our Dispatchers, Forestry, and Health Haz Mat members.  We have mostly wrapped up our negotiations and are now working with the Department to finalize details. Again, this is for the salary and bonuses for all 603/604 Bargaining Unit members. Once we reach an agreement, the vote will be sent to all 603/604 members only for ratification. 

NEW WEBSITE

This week we are also pleased to announce the launch of our new website. This new website is mobile compatible and easy to use. 

This is just one part of our Executive Board's efforts to improve communication and information access for our members. We are also working on developing a mobile app to make access even easier. Look for more updates on the app in the next few weeks. 

Check out the new website below: 

Stay safe out there and take care of each other. 

In Solidarity,

President Dave Gillotte and your Executive Board

Los Angeles County Firefighters IAFF Local 1014

Representing over 3200 Firefighters, Paramedics, Dispatchers,
Pilots, Wildland Firefighters, Forestry and Health Haz Mat Personnel

FRIDAY UPDATE 
 

Brothers and Sisters, 

As some of you may have heard, we had a contentious meeting with the Chief and his staff last week in Battalion 5. 

First, on behalf of the Executive Board, we would like to thank all the members who spoke up at that meeting and made their voices heard to the Chief.  Our Executive Board has been fighting hard for relief for our members; the most impact is always made by the personal stories shared.

In Solidarity,

President Dave Gillotte and your Executive Board

Los Angeles County Firefighters IAFF Local 1014

Representing over 3200 Firefighters, Paramedics, Dispatchers,
Pilots, Wildland Firefighters, Forestry and Health Haz Mat Personnel

FRIDAY UPDATE 
 

Brothers and Sisters, 

This week, your Local 1014 Executive Board attended the 2019 10th District Partnership Education Program (PEP) event. This is the largest 10th District PEP and Caucus event to-date with union members registered from across New Mexico, California, Arizona, and Hawaii. 

International Fire Fighters Association General President Harold Schaitberger addressed the members shortly before being called to Washington D.C. to announce the passage of the 911 Victim Compensation Fund bill authorizing permanent funding for our 911 first responders. Yet another example of how strength through unity and political action directly affects change for our members. 

Our Board Members participated in workshops on grievances, pensions, communications, political action, and other critically important topics which allow us to effectively represent you and fight for your interests. Local 1014 President Dave Gillotte was pleased to be a panelist at the first-ever 10th District Round Table Discussion featuring three topics: Pensions, Legal and Leadership. Trainings like these keep our Board Members up-to-date on changing laws, regulations and practices affecting union members.

Special thank you to our IAFF 10^th District Vice President Frank Lima for hosting an informative and productive event and to our workers' compensation firm Straussner & Sherman for speaking on return to work and workers' comp issues at the PEP.

Payroll Update 

Last week, members of our Executive Board met with the Auditor-Controller’s Office and the payroll section to discuss the retro payment issue, to identify monies still due, and find solutions to reduce mistakes like these in the future. This week, we continued our discussions with payroll on remaining retro pay for our members. The payroll section is diligently working on creating the 7-1-19 pay tables as we speak. We expect their release soon.

Purchase of New Firehawks

Finally, we would like to thank our Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, especially Supervisor Kathryn Barger for pushing through the purchase of two additional Firehawk Helicopters for our Department. As we all know, fire season is coming up quickly and we cannot afford to not have the resources and equipment we need to keep our members and our communities safe. 

In Solidarity,

President Dave Gillotte and your Executive Board

Los Angeles County Firefighters IAFF Local 1014

Representing over 3200 Firefighters, Paramedics, Dispatchers,
Pilots, Wildland Firefighters, Forestry and Health Haz Mat Personnel

FRIDAY UPDATE 
 

Brothers and Sisters, 

Last week, Local 1014 Executive Board members were in Sacramento fighting for critically important legislation to protect our members and improve our working conditions. 

Our Board was honored to represent our members and support the following legislation while in Sacramento: 

• SB 542(Stern)-Gives first responders the occupational protections needed to treat Post Traumatic Stress Injuries (PTSI) and begin the healing process. The bill passed unanimously out of Assembly Insurance Committee and moves to Appropriations Committee next. 
• SB 438 (Hertzberg)- This bill blocks the privatization of emergency dispatch to ensure patient care is the top priority and keeps 911 dispatch in the hands of sworn public safety officers. 
• AB 1544(Gipson/Hertzberg)-This bill will help get vulnerable patients the care that they need, leading to better patient outcomes. AB1544 will help connect trusted firefighter-paramedics to the most vulnerable patients in our community and deliver vital services to ensure the highest quality care. The Community Paramedicine Bill passed the Senate Health Committee and the Senate Judiciary Committee. 

We would like to thank Sister Cerena Lewis, Fire Dispatcher, for joining us to lobby the California State Legislature on SB 438 and for providing moving testimony on behalf of our LA County Dispatchers and Dispatchers across California.  

We can never emphasize enough that political action is the cornerstone of protecting our members and their families while improving our wages, hours and working conditions. Los Angeles County is the largest county in the nation. It is critical that our voice and the voice of our members is heard by those who make life-changing decisions on our behalf. Your Executive Board is constantly working to ensure that we are protected at every level of government. 

We would like to thank the wonderful staff at California Professional Firefighters (CPF) for their effort to push these bills through the California Legislature. Special thank you to President Brian Rice for walking the halls with us to support these bills. 

 In Solidarity,

President Dave Gillotte and your Executive Board

Los Angeles County Firefighters IAFF Local 1014

Representing over 3200 Firefighters, Paramedics, Dispatchers,
Pilots, Wildland Firefighters, Forestry and Health Haz Mat Personnel

FRIDAY UPDATE 

Brothers and Sisters,

Today Local 1014 Executive Board members along with representatives from The 1014 Health Plan participated in a meet and greet with our new third-party administrator for workers' compensation for the Los Angeles County Fire Department, Sedgwick. The staff of Sedgwick was given live demonstrations of the types of incidents that Firefighters engage in every day. These demonstrations were accompanied by a description of what types of injuries often accompany these incidents. This first-hand experience is critical to their staff understanding how difficult this job is and how much we need every member of our team. 

As we all know, the workers' comp system has been a source of frustration for our members. With increased call loads and increasing severity of calls, we need to have every member of our Department healthy and able to get the treatment as soon as possible for work-related injuries. We hope that this new third-party administrator will be a partner in this process and in streamlining this for our members.  Local 1014 is committed to working with the Department and Sedgwick to get our members the treatment they need quickly and efficiently so they can get healthy and back to work. 

603/604 Negotiations 

Also today our Local 1014 Executive Board met with the County to continue negotiations on our 603/604 Bargaining Units, which includes Dispatchers, Forestry, Health HazMat and Fire Prevention.  We continue to fight for our members to receive a fair contract that reflects the increased workload and responsibility of these bargaining groups. We will update you as the negotiations process continues. 

Have a great week, be safe and take care of each other. 

In Solidarity,

President Dave Gillotte and your Executive Board

Los Angeles County Firefighters IAFF Local 1014

Representing over 3200 Firefighters, Paramedics, Dispatchers,
Pilots, Wildland Firefighters, Forestry and Health Haz Mat Personnel

FRIDAY UPDATE 

Brothers and Sisters,

As many of you know, the Local 1014 Executive Board has been working exhaustively with the Department since 6/8/19 to ensure that our retro payment to our members is true, accurate, and complete. 

As we informed you previously, we found retro payment discrepancies that have not been addressed for our members, and they have been confirmed with the Auditor-Controller.  However, we are pleased to say that through communications with Human Resources and Payroll, efforts are in the works to fix it.  The Department has also acknowledged the underpayments.

Local 1014 would like to remind you that our Payroll section is on our side as our advocate, and we would like to acknowledge their efforts, willingness to work with us, and diligence in seeing this through to its conclusion. Except in some rare cases, all retro payments should be paid in full with an anticipated date of 7/30/19. In addition to these retro payments, don’t forget the 2019 COLA is in effect 7/1/2019, and you should see this on the 8/1/2019 warrant. 

Again, we would like to thank the Payroll Staff and Supervisors who have been working diligently and collaboratively with Local 1014 Board Members to reconcile the pay warrants and pay due to our members.  This is a lot of money and we are taking steps to ensure all monies have been received. 

Attached are the Department EA and Paycheck Calculator in case you missed them in the Department’s send. 

On behalf of your Los Angeles County Firefighters, IAFF Local 1014 Executive Board, we wish you and your families a safe and healthy Fourth of July holiday weekend! 

In Solidarity,

President Dave Gillotte and your Executive Board

Los Angeles County Firefighters IAFF Local 1014

Representing over 3200 Firefighters, Paramedics, Dispatchers,
Pilots, Wildland Firefighters, Forestry and Health Haz Mat Personnel

FRIDAY UPDATE 

Brothers and Sisters,

This week, Local 1014 along with the Los Angeles County Fire Department sponsored our Quarterly Behavioral Health Peer Support Training. Special thank you to our guest speaker Michael Dubron from the Firefighter Cancer Support Network who spoke on the mental health aspects of cancer and the importance of peer and professional mental health clinician outreach to those who receive a diagnosis. Thank you to all peers and clinicians in attendance and our LAFD partners who also attended.

Local 1014 would like to remind the families of our LA County fallen Firefighters who have children entering college to apply for the Dan Terry Scholarship through the California Fire Foundation.

The deadline to submit applications for the Daniel A. Terry Scholarship program, which provides assistance to the children of firefighters who died in the line of duty, is Monday, July 1, 2019. The application for 2019 is available here. For more information about the Daniel A. Terry Scholarship program, call (800) 890-3212. Be safe out there and take care of each other.

 In Solidarity,
President Dave Gillotte and your Executive Board

Los Angeles County Firefighters IAFF Local 1014

Representing over 3200 Firefighters, Paramedics, Dispatchers,
Pilots, Wildland Firefighters, Forestry and Health Haz Mat Personnel

FRIDAY UPDATE 

Brothers and Sisters,

Local 1014 would like to remind the families of our LA County fallen Firefighters who have children entering college to apply for the Dan Terry Scholarship through the California Fire Foundation.

The deadline to submit applications for the Daniel A. Terry Scholarship program, which provides assistance to the children of firefighters who died in the line of duty, is Monday, July 1, 2019.

As a California Fire Foundation Board Member, Local 1014 was proud to sponsor the Foundation motion to expand this scholarship opportunity for all fallen firefighter families. The $2,000 scholarship will now be renewable annually for four years for a total of $8,000. We will continue to work to expand this scholarship opportunity for the children of our fallen brothers and sisters.

Named for California Professional Firefighters President-Emeritus Daniel A. Terry, the scholarship program was created to help the children of fallen firefighters realize their dreams of receiving a higher education. Since its inception, the program has awarded over $200,000 in scholarship funds to more than 100 students, including many children of Local 1014 members. The application for 2019 is available here.

For more information about the Daniel A. Terry Scholarship program, call (800) 890-3212. Be safe out there and take care of each other.

 In Solidarity,
President Dave Gillotte and your Executive Board

Los Angeles County Firefighters IAFF Local 1014

Representing over 3200 Firefighters, Paramedics, Dispatchers,
Pilots, Wildland Firefighters, Forestry and Health Haz Mat Personnel

FRIDAY UPDATE 

Brothers and Sisters,  

Pay Warrants

By now many of you have seen your 6/14/19 pay warrants. While some of what is due is on the check, it is apparent that much is missing. Your Executive Board is working hard to get our pay and ensure reconciliation on retro and any special bonus pay.  

As of now approximately 700 of our members received the correct calculation for the 2% COLA and retro back pay, and 2% EMT. The rest of us did not receive a correct and or complete pay raise.  The Department is working with Local 1014 to reconcile these errors and get checks out to us by today.  

Additionally, we have learned that the Paramedic Bonus and special bonuses have not been applied because the County is finishing getting formal approval from LACERA regarding pension eligibility.  This also occurred with ALADS and the Sheriff’s Deputies and LACOLA and the Lifeguards.  We will be working to get this completed and done to move those monies into our checks as well.

July is our next scheduled raise. We are using that as a target goal to get this and that raise set to go with the Auditor-Controller.  It is clear that the Auditor-Controller and Department Payroll system is antiquated and not set up to handle our numerous bonuses and work down situations. We are working with the Department on a solution as well as a simple guide to understanding your paycheck and hours with simple math.  

As we said earlier in the week, we have been in contact with the Fire Chief and we are demanding that he hold his staff accountable for these errors. The Department will be continuing to communicate on the issue also. 

Additionally, the Union has contracted with an independent auditor to review our members' paychecks via a sample of each rank and bonus structure. This will ensure that checks have been processed correctly and rectify any individual paychecks with grave errors. We hope to have those audits done with a sampling of all ranks and pay step levels and bonuses by July also.  We will report back to the members our findings.   

603 / 604 Bargaining Continues

The 603 / 604 bargaining table for our Dispatchers, FPEA’s, Haz Mat, and Forestry members will reconvene in the next couple of weeks as we continue to deliberate and work with the CEO and the Department on costs for the items we seek.  As in all negotiations, much work occurs not only at the table but in the halls of the Department and the CEO and ultimately the Board of Supervisors.  We will continue to keep the members posted on our progress.  

Peer Support 

Over the last few months, our membership has seen a wave of tragic events from losing members to losing family members and loved ones. We are very proud of our PEER team for assisting our own, but also firefighters in Northern California who are dealing with another very young firefighter suicide.  

Be proud of LA County Fire - Local 1014 and LA County Fire Lifeguards - LACOLA members representing us in various locations as we print these words.  Thank you to Chief Osby for his continued support for the IAFF trained and sponsored teams to handle this work.  We have a solid relationship with the Reno Firefighters and the surrounding areas as we continue to support their needs as well as our brother who lost his child.  

As we continue to work every day to serve our 4 million residents in what is sometimes their and their family’s worst day, we must remember to check in with ourselves and with our Brothers and Sisters. Sometimes asking for help is the strongest thing you can do.

Please utilize the resources in your station and on www.healingourown.org if you feel you or someone you know needs help. Break the stigma, break the silence. 

 In Solidarity,
President Dave Gillotte and your Executive Board