Los Angeles County Firefighters IAFF Local 1014

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

Brothers and Sisters,

Super Tuesday was a long night for us all, the national stage was on everyone’s televisions and social media streams, and our local elections in LA County were in full swing.  We worked long into the evening courting our political action efforts with our partners and we had many important victories, but we did not achieve the 2/3rds vote threshold needed to pass Measure FD.

We knew this would be a tough task and we worked hard to try and get this done before the November frenzy likely to be in the political environment with the National Presidential election in play.  We need to keep looking for an additional funding source to get to 4-0 staffing and secure our future, but in the meantime, we have plenty of work to do with the existing budget and we will concentrate on those issues including filling our existing vacancies and prioritizing equipment and safety for our members as the top priorities with the Department.  

While this is not the outcome we had hoped for on Measure FD,  this is not the end of our fight or our efforts to secure funding for our Department.  Your Union has prepared for every contingency. We have plans for November 2020 and if the data supports an effort in November it will be considered.  We will be analyzing the results precinct by precinct and via Vote By Mail to see where the votes came in and where they might be in November. 

We would like to thank the entire Board of Supervisors, especially Janice Hahn and Kathryn Barger for their unwavering support of our members and this measure. We would also like to especially thank the dozens of local elected officials, Labor organizations, and the business coalitions who endorsed this measure and supported our efforts. As we look to regroup and go back to the voters in November, we would like to thank you, our members, for your support and solidarity. 

Measure FD was very important for our funding, but our Local Political Action Plan always begins with our local elected officials and state officials.  Local 1014 had a victorious night for both our State, LA County, and City PAC races. The Local 1014 endorsement brand is strong and one of the most sought-after endorsements for any candidate. 

The most important elections we participate in are our LA County Board of Supervisors races and all three of our endorsed candidates for Supervisor came in first place last night with Supervisors Janice Hahn and Kathryn Barger winning outright with an overwhelming majority and Herb Wesson headed to the runoff in the first place. Jackie Lacey also came out with a strong win last night. We were proud to help her in partnership with our Brothers and Sisters at ALADS and PPOA to continue serving Los Angeles County. 

Additionally, we had nearly 100% victory with our City PAC in all 15 city council races in which we gave candidate endorsements. This is critical to keeping our contract and fee for service cities funded and continuing to provide resources to service those communities. 

On the State level, we had a near clean sweep with our endorsed candidates like Senator Henry Stern, Assembly Members Phillip Chen, Blanca Rubio, Anthony Rendon, Wendy Carrillo, and Reggie Jones-Sawyer just to name a few. 

At the national level, our IAFF endorsed candidates and our longtime friend Christy Smith also will be headed into the runoff for Congress. While our longtime supporters in Congress also secured election victory. 

As we celebrate our victories at the Board of Supervisors and our local cities and prepare for the next steps for funding,  we will continue our work to fight for our members' wages, hours and working conditions. We have a lot of big things to accomplish over the next few weeks including fighting for the Trail Shift Schedule Change, ratifying 603-603 contracts and continuing our work on staffing. The existing budget will be our top priority as we work with the Fire Chief and the BOS to prioritize our needs with staffing and safety equipment at the top of the list.  We also will begin to tackle bargaining again as our contract expires at the end of this year.  This will be a very busy year once again.  

Thank you for remaining Union Strong!

In Solidarity,

President Dave Gillotte and the Local 1014 Executive Board