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Brothers & Sisters,
As we head into this weekend, we acknowledge the difficulties our nation has been facing these past few weeks. While the war in Ukraine has affected us here at home with rising fuel prices and inflation, we want to take time to acknowledge our brave brothers and sisters fighting fire on the ground in Ukraine. As their country remains under Russian attack, firefighters are standing strong on the frontlines, not in battle, but protecting the lives of Ukrainian citizens responding to structure fires caused by missile strikes and searching for survivors in blown out buildings. Our thoughts and prayers are with them as they stand united.
COVID VACCINE MANDATE UPDATE
We had our second meeting with the Fire Chief since his return. We addressed substantively the many issues in front of us and affecting not only our members but also affecting the Department. While there are many issues to address, front and center is the COVID 19 Vaccine Mandate. We continue to navigate this issue with Chief Marrone in charge of finishing the task at hand with the Union.
We had a great General Membership Meeting on Tuesday. We STAND TOGETHER regardless of whether you are vaccinated or not vaccinated. The Union has remained steadfast in support of the vaccine and safety gear for our personnel and adamantly opposed to a mandate, with negotiated and legal rights for exemptions and accommodations.
The mantra “vaccinate or accommodate” is still the mantra of the moment while things change. We are down to eight of our members who have refused to register with Fulgent. While we continue to encourage and educate these members on the legal requirement to register and “stay in the boat” as we move to the next phase of the order, we also strongly oppose any aspect of discipline that involves threats or intent to discharge any of our members. It makes absolutely no sense to move to discipline. This message has been carried to the Fire Chief directly upon his return to allow for his input to solutions.
Know that all of our members, including those who have chosen to not vaccinate are not only important to us but take the lion's share of our effort as we represent them and work continuously to negotiate fair and effective solutions to comply with the mandate and protect their livelihood.
More on this as we navigate the next steps of applying and requesting medical and religious exemptions. Please read the material on exemptions from our Union attorney and look for further instruction from the Union and the Department on exemption filing. Stay together, stay strong, and stay strategic in our fight for all.
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NEGOTIATIONS
As we reported to you last week, a historic Unions United alliance has formed with ALL COUNTY UNIONS to include SEIU 721 and the County Coalition of Unions (CCU) to set a bottom line on the Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) that all workers will demand and deserve. This week, we met with the LA County CEO and ALL Unions to deliver a message and court a partnership at our bargaining tables to work to a collectively fair contract settlement.
Individually our Union met with the County to receive their first counter to our proposals for our 601/601 Bargaining Units, and without question, the CEO representatives at the table had little or no CEO or BOS authority to bargain in a field that will get a fair deal done. Their opening proposal of 2%, 2%, 2% each July 1 for a 3-year deal was insulting and does not reflect the value of our members and their service throughout the pandemic.
We will hold out and take any and all job actions necessary to get a fair contract and that is the message we have delivered to the County on every level. We will keep you updated on progress and needs for member action if and when we need it, and likely we will not get this done without everyone lifting a bit to drive it home.
We look to set another bargaining meeting within the next two weeks as the CEO moves to get more authority and support for all tables. We have also moved our efforts to the 8th floor speaking to all BOS so they are directly aware of the issues affecting workers and our members. We will not bring anything other than a fair contract offer to you for a ratification vote. We deserve nothing less. |
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POLITICAL ACTION UPDATE
Political action is the most powerful tool we have in advocating for our members and their families. Your Local 1014 Executive Board takes the endorsement process very seriously and we critically evaluate each candidate through a thorough endorsement process.
The past few weeks, your Executive Board conducted interviews for the upcoming June primary for Los Angeles County Supervisorial District 3 race. Board of Supervisors races are the most critical elected officials for our contract and working conditions items. It is essential that we support and help candidates that are strong on our member issues and firefighter issues in general. Topics of the interviews included the bargaining rights for the COVID vaccine mandate, behavioral health funding, increased revenue streams for our department to allow for additional hiring, collective bargaining, and many more critically important issues to our members and their families. This is an important race and we are taking our time to evaluate every aspect before supporting any candidate. We will update you as we continue this process.
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In addition to the Board of Supervisors and our local city races, we also play heavily in state races for State Senate and State Assembly races through the California Professional Firefighters our state union.
The past several weeks we have also been engaging in our cluster interviews for all races that affect our jurisdiction and we are working hard together with our neighboring local affiliates to choose candidates that are strong on state fire issues like wildland fire funding, community paramedicine, pensions, and workers compensation reform all of which are greatly affected by our state legislature. This is a long process but we will have more in those endorsements as we move closer.
Special thanks to our CPF political and legislative staff who have worked tirelessly to endure we are well prepared for these interviews and all candidates are interviewed. |
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IAFF Wellness Fitness Initiative
The IAFF Wellness Fitness Initiative has saved lives and we are taking this program to a new level with integration into FireSync.
Local 1014 and Fit For Life are pleased to announce the release of "The Bear" fitness app that will exist on FireSync. This app is designed to be a source of health and wellness information for our LACoFD firefighters. This initial launch will include "The Bear Kettlebell Challenge". A six-month comprehensive program designed to teach firefighters how to use kettlebells to cover all their physical fitness needs. It contains written instructions in addition to videos.
"The Bear" fitness app will continually update its content as new programs are developed and completed. From mental, nutritional and physical health, this app will cover a broad range in an effort to give our outstanding members of LACoFD access to the best health and wellness information.
How to Access
- Pull up the FireSync app on your mobile device
- Click on the icon that has the bear over the kettlebell. This will take you to the app where all information is housed. A written description explains how best to use the program.
View the following link to watch the introductory video https://firefighterfitness.lacountyfirefighters.org/category/kb-intro/
If you have questions, please contact Captain Evan Halquist, Peer Fitness Trainer at evan.halquist@fire.lacounty.gov.
Thank you to Brother Even Helquist and the Peer Fitness Trainers and FFL members who work tirelessly to ensure this work gets done.
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In Solidarity,
President Dave Gillotte and the Local 1014 Executive Board |
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