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As we finish the last few weeks of December 2023, your Executive Board and the Staff of Local 1014 are busy finishing critical work.
STAFFING
The Local 1014 Staffing Committee met again with the Department. We will also meet with Card File Captains from each battalion regarding our ongoing efforts to ensure staffing agreements, policies, and procedures are working. We have all seen and felt relief about recalls and the ability to secure benefit days. Still, we are working on staffing, and ensuring relief in mandated work is continually at the top of the list for the Department.
This week, we also began discussions with the Department's Executive Staff to add Strike Team and Move Up Staffing to the list of items that need policy review. While we have had a relatively settled fire season thus far, we are from being out of the range of conditions to have a major wildfire event, especially when the wind blows.
This weekend, they have again reminded us that the Department sometimes forgets that real humans, not machines, are impacted when orders go out. It is unacceptable that on-duty Deputy Chiefs are using their gut feelings about weather events to issue staffing orders. It is equally unacceptable to alter those orders based on CAL OES-approved funding. If it is important enough to call our people back and require augmented staffing, then that should be a decision based on safety and regardless of reimbursement funding from the state. We will be reviewing with the Department their obligation to follow staffing procedures regardless of reimbursement issues from the State.
If any variance needs to occur due to financial concerns, the Department must contact the Union and work through those variances by agreement. We are very aware of pre-position monies, CAL OES, CAL FIRE, and State Aid that Local 1014 has worked to secure. These monies are critical to helping municipal agencies meet Local response and SRA area needs without carrying the financial burden, even if for short periods.
We plan to meet and discuss this to agreement in a collaborative and understanding way, but if this cannot be resolved, then we will file an UNFAIR LABOR CHARGE. Taking care of our members while we take care of the mission should always be at the top of the list for our managers, thereby defining them as leaders vs. managers. We don't allege malice but instead complacency with a system that does not take into account our members and their families.
We want to thank our Card File Captains primarily on this item and our wildfire weather specialists whom we are consulting and working with as we push this issue. We are looking forward to an amicable resolve to put our members and their families on the same line as the mission simultaneously, as we are certainly a good enough organization to do so—more as we meet to clean this up. |
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| Congratulations to the newly promoted fire and lifeguard captains who successfully completed the LACoFD’s Fire Captain Academy 29! |
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CHRISTMAS AND CHRISTMAS EVE STAFFING SET FOR DECEMBER 15TH
We are meeting with Card File Sites and the Department to ensure that the rules are consistent and fairly administered as we fill for these two important days. In addition, as we have seen before, if we have wind and or weather events at the same time, how we handle staffing becomes critical not only to meet the mission but also to understand and plan in advance for the impact on our members and their families.
Again, we want to thank our Card File Captains, Chief Deputies, and Union Vice Presidents and Directors for leading this effort to plan in advance. Set your calendars for the 15th and be good to each other in our responsibilities to respond when called, work, and take care of those most in need on the holiday where we can. Tradition plays a significant role in caring for each other during this time. |
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CALIFORNIA PROFESSIONAL FIREFIGHTERS – LOCAL 1014 EFFORTS FOR FUNDING
As this week closes, we prepare for our General Membership Meeting on Tuesday, December 12th at 10 am at the Union Hall and a CPF Executive Board Meeting on the same day in Sacramento.
Lately, we have been working with our amazing FSAs and the new generation of Union FSAs who are rolling up their sleeves to better their working conditions and pay. We continue to pressure the Department on our FSAs regarding the hiring lists and conditional job offers we secured for the FFT candidates who were hired on as FSAs, as well as FSA schedules and the ability to stay over at camp.
While our FSA’s are often called “Camp Kids," they are very far from being kids, and respectfully, these grown men and women, proud 1014 members, deserve the best working conditions, including a proper schedule that accommodates work-life balance. We look forward to the FSAs in the Hall again on Tuesday as we collaborate and work to pressure the Department to move on what seems to be common sense. We look forward to strong management leadership to give transparent, effective, and fair intent to the staff in charge of the logistics.
We also are meeting in Sacramento to have our final Executive Board Meeting ratifying our work at the state level in political and legislative action on laws affecting our members and on funding and retirement efforts for our members. Of note, two committees have been working to advance two sectors of our members' job security. The 37 ACT Committee is named after the 1937 Act laws that define our public safety retirement systems, including all ’37 ACT County Unions and Departments like LA, Orange, Ventura, Marin, Kern, and more. Our work has centered on legislative protections to define what salary and pay are compensable under PEPRA definitions and system legal challenges to such compensation.
One such effort has been our work on AB 1020 (Grayson): 1937 Act Disability Retirement
This measure will ensure that when a firefighter is seeking a disability retirement for an injury that is covered under a workers’ compensation presumption, the burden of proof for a county retirement system to determine the service-connected disability retirement is consistent with the presumption.
We also have a Contract Counties Committee where all counties that contract services for cities and provide coverage in the SRA areas are engaged in work to secure existing funding for items such as pre-positions, grey book, blue book staffing, and reimbursements.
We also are working with CAL-Fire Local 2881 on this committee and Cal OES to ensure that the reimbursements, as well as admin fees, are understood, and a record of such is sent to the unions as well as the departments so the unions can ensure that the value of the reimbursements is being spent and used appropriately. We also began our work on crafting additional funding sources from the state budget, especially given the impact of items such as the cessation of inmate fire camp census, causing departments like ours to fund paid camps, often who may be called to protect SRA and auto aid areas.
We believe our work with the Legislature and the Governor will net a positive for both Cal Fire 2881 in their goals and simultaneously the Contract Counties' work to secure new funding. We’ll keep you posted as we progress. |
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END-OF-YEAR BENEFITS AND PLANNING FOR 2024
A quick note to remind our members: December is a time to review your medical expenditures, and likely, with deductibles being met, end-of-year medical, dental, and vision work can be handled and get maximum coverage as we close out 2023. Don’t forget the rich orthodontia and vision benefits for Local 1014 Health and Welfare Plan members, which can be claimed for 2023. Leave no money on the table!
| Finally, here's an important reminder to get your catch-up contributions in! If you need assistance, don't hesitate to get in touch with the County Service Center for Horizons, and they’ll set you up. |
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In Solidarity,
President Dave Gillotte and the Local 1014 Executive Board |
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