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Brothers & Sisters,
UNIONS UNITED RALLY AT BOARD OF SUPERVISORS
Yesterday, on Cesar Chavez Day, thousands of Unions United members rallied at Grand Park to make our voices heard in our efforts to get a fair contract.
While all Unions bargain separately for their bargaining unit items, the COLA is set and bargained along with all County Unions. For the first time ever, all Unions in the County representing over 130,000 workers with CCU and SEIU have formed a solidarity pact in our work to push the COLA as high as we can get it during this time of unprecedented inflation and high CPI. We will continue to also bargain our Unit items which include a number of Plan C, post-PEPRA employee items as well.
Stay tuned as we ramp up bargaining each week and demand nothing less than a fair contract! |
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CPF OPPOSITION TO AB 1993
Through CPF's advocacy AB 1993 — the bill that sought to implement a statewide COVID-19 vaccination mandate for all public and private employees, is no longer moving forward in the legislature. Thanks to our coalition of labor partners and the advocacy of our local leadership, we were able to safeguard union bargaining rights and the meet and confer process. Our opposition was always about protecting bargaining agreements at the local level and preventing legislation from summarily circumventing the meet and confer process, and removing all prior agreements reached through local bargaining.
Our powerful advocacy in the legislature allowed us to demonstrate our success in increasing vaccine compliance throughout California’s fire departments through town halls and various member education campaigns. We made clear that our affiliate leaders were successful in utilizing their existing labor management partnerships to meet and confer over vaccine uptake, vaccine mandates and the impacts and effects of those decisions.
Thank you to Brian Rice - President of CPF and all CPF affiliate Locals who along with Local 1014 worked so hard in Sacramento to kill this bill. |
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TRAINING AND RECRUIT CADRE FIASCO
By now every member of our Department knows that the Recruit Training Cadre in its entirety was sent back to the field and summarily dismissed from service pending the outcome of an internal investigation of allegations of inappropriate treatment during the tower by recruits who had been discharged from the tower.
Local 1014 represented all the remaining recruits in a long day of interviews with the Department. Furthermore, we represent the Training Cadre as well and we expect interviews with them as well. Removal of the TC Cadre is not only impactful on the members who have given their time, blood and sweat to move countless classes through to help our staffing situation, but also on the recruits going through the tower. “Welcome to the County PPS and CPOE System” with interviews and Union representation during training?
This is not the first time this has happened. We received calls from a training cadre who was also released and suspended pending the outcome of an after-hours recruit banquet. Neither of these actions by the Department are right nor in line with due process. The Union has taken this issue directly to the BOS to enlighten them on what is happening, and also, we are demanding an independent investigation by an outside entity or at a minimum by the County Auditor-Controller.
We have long been discussing with the Department the trend of recruits who do not pass the tower submitting injury claims in a timely manner to get recycled when clearly, they were not doing well in the tower at the “time of injury”. A system where performance standing is also used when evaluating an injury claim with regard to re-entering the tower can and should be in place. Picking up a claim and treating an injured recruit is one thing and we have that solidly in place but recycling and starting another tower is completely another.
Reflecting the diversity of the communities we serve has long been a task of not only the Department but also the Unions with BOS direction. The harmful and hurtful comments and or social media banter by the keyboard warriors is neither helpful nor factual. We have many programs and efforts in place that will not only not go away, but have been helpful to our recruit preparation. There are two programs in place now in our Department with excellent instructors. First, is the Women’s Prep Academy which is an intense program to expose the job of firefighter to young women from our communities. The second is the Recruit Preparatory Academy which is another intense course to expose potential recruits with conditional offers of employment to the rigors of the drill tower and our job. Those who excel at both programs also excel in the Drill Tower. These two programs are created and taught by our own members.
We are proposing to move our testing system which everyone has clearly seen is broken and has eroded to the state FCTC system for both CPAT and the Fire Service-Based Written. This program also has women’s recruitment and mentoring in place with a feed to the actual test and potential to be hired, all with pre-test requirements and standards of performance. This is how you accomplish melding all of the needs of the County and the needs of a Department looking to hire the best and the brightest. We can change our system ever so slightly and have the gold standard on all of the above.
We would like to encourage our members to lock arms and stand in solidarity as we navigate this difficult and volatile situation. There are those who would seek to divide us based on race or gender, and we should reject those actions and those efforts. Do not participate in the rhetoric and broad-based generalizations of people or groups. These comments only seek to divide and are harmful and hurtful to those who have put in the time and work to succeed. Stand united and in solidarity as we navigate the facts and actions of a Fire Chief and leadership team that has failed us at a time when we need it more than ever. |
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In Solidarity,
President Dave Gillotte and the Local 1014 Executive Board |
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