Congratulations to our newest Fire Fighter Specialists who were promoted on the largest single promotion list ever in our history. We moved mountains and worked through County DHR and with the Fire Chief and Executive Staff to have an expedited appeal process, offered candidates spots the day they passed and one mass promotion to help expedite filling the FFS vacancies which top the charts on need. The FFS will be pulled in small groups to receive their engineer brush and academy training. Congratulations to the newest straw bosses on our job and good luck in all you do!
Special thanks to Dennis Breshears and Training Services Section for engaging and working on “can do” outside the box solutions to fix a problem. We also reminded the Department that while we celebrate the victory on this project we also must be acutely aware that we now simply are right back where we started with an Engineers list that just expired. The training services section has been tasked with annual promotional exams and the work continues on that plan with expedited FFS exam along with our current and follow-up Captains’ exams. We also have two additional FF Recruit classes set for this year and budgeted 8 recruit classes for next year. The vacancies are starting to fill and we fill the impact but this is no time to pause on the effort to climb back to full staffing. Firefighter injuries hover at over 300 per month. Our annual monthly average used to hover near 120 a month. Why are our injury rates so high? A Labor/Management worker’s compensation committee is now focused on addressing vacancies due to injury a critical piece of the recall problem.
Also congratulations to our newest Captains who promoted and hit the field after another amazing Captains Academy and Brush Training as we enter into the start of another early and critical fire weather fire season.
Vaccine Mandates Federal / State / County
This week has been an interesting week with elected officials and health officials at the federal and state levels racing to act on vaccine mandates or testing and vaccine status verification.
While over 70% of our members are vaccinated, we also have a small section of our membership who has chosen not to be vaccinated. Your Board understands our members have their own personal beliefs and are passionate about them. We have taken numerous calls regarding the vaccine mandate over the last week. Our UNITED stance is that we do recommend that you get vaccinated, but we are 100% against mandatory vaccinations. This is also the stance of the IAFF and CPF. The battles ahead are going to be fought on every level possible. We both encourage and recommend that you educate yourself with as much accurate information as possible.
The Board of Supervisors are our governing body. We have seen both an Executive Order to mandate vaccines by October and also we are watching a proposed motion. While none of these actions have any immediate authority, the very nature of mandatory vaccines and or testing has some real challenges. We have legal counsel working with us to tackle objection and/or court-supported mandates to bargain over the “impact” of such changes. We also continue discussions with the Board of Supervisors and the Health Deputies on our bargain units' specific situation and how we can best address the health issue. The meet and confer process is where the real work gets done and we will be taking a data-based legal approach to reach an agreement that protects our members' right to choose while maintaining the highest health and safety standards for our members and their families.
Additionally, the IAFF legal firm is also engaged nationally and in Canada as this issue extends to all states and knows no borders. We have been actively engaged with our partners in LA City, Long Beach and the Area 1 Departments and Unions to work together to fight on behalf of our members. Your Local 1014 Board represents every member, and we will fight for all members. This process is far from over so stay STRONG and stay UNITED as we are family.
We are close to striking a fair deal with the County for our fringe benefits. The strained table bargaining table reconvened after we educated and worked with the BOS and CEO on the CCU membership needs. Priorities are increased in medical premium contributions to keep money in our members' pockets and ensure access to the best health care available not just PPO’s. These premiums also apply to dental and vision benefits. We have taken great care to craft for our members. We also are working on an additional Holiday and some one-time COVID monies for our members who served on the front lines. We will meet with the County again next week to try and bargain the remaining details to secure a short-term fair contract that will help our families.
Salary contract bargaining will begin at the end of this year as all Unions come out of a one-year contract extension. We look forward to progress on items important to our members and the opportunity to improve our already amazing contract for salary and benefits. Post-COVID economy and other pressures have made the bargaining environment strained but working as labor stewards of our finances as well as our share for fair contracts we remain in good shape economically and from a bargaining position to make smart and appropriate gains a priority for us.
As you may know, the blood supply this July is at an all-time low for the American Red Cross. They are experiencing a severe shortage of O Negative blood with only a one-day supply at times. They have reached out to our Union for help. We had such an amazing response at our last blood drive, they are once again asking our members and families to step up.
As part of our commitment to our communities, Local 1014 will be hosting a blood drive on Thursday, August 12 from 9am-3pm at our Union Hall. It only takes 30 mins to save 3 lives. Sign up today and be a hero!
To incentive people to donate the Red Cross is offering an epic, once-in-a-lifetime trip! Give blood and automatically be entered for a chance to win atrip for two to the sold-out 2021 Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival, which includes two VIP Festival tickets, round-trip airfare, one-night hotel + celebrity chef Maneet Chauhan restaurant experience in Nashville, luxury RV accommodations on-site at Bonnaroo, a $500 prepaid concessions voucher.
Additionally, all donors in August will get a free 4-month subscription offer to Apple Music by email!
