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Brothers & Sisters,
This week, your Local 1014 Executive Board hit the halls of the State Capitol in Sacramento, lobbying for legislation that will better the lives and working conditions of our members. Political action is one of the most important things we can do as a union to ensure that we continue to have the resources to keep our members and communities safe.
During the conference, Firefighters met with and educated each and every Assembly Member and Senator in the state who will consider support on our issues. Each Local Union makes contact and sets meetings with their district legislators to lobby our legislative agenda. This process of supporting elected candidates and maintaining relationships with them, educating and lobbying our legislative and budget priorities is how we get it done.
Lobbying on behalf of our members is an ongoing process each and every year at the local, federal, and state levels. Still, annually we launch our legislative agenda for the year. Below are some of the important pieces of legislation that we are pushing for this cycle to protect our members:
- AB 40 (Freddie Rodriguez, D-Pomona) Ambulance Patient Offload Time
- AB 621 (Jacqui Irwin, D-Thousand Oaks) Public Safety: Line Of Duty Death, Death Benefits
Ab 700 (Tim Grayson, D-Concord) California Firefighter Cancer Prevention And Research Program
- AB 767 (Mike Gipson, D-Carson) Community Paramedicine Or Triage To Alternate Destination Sunset Extension
- AB 1020 (Tim Grayson, D-Concord) County Employee Retirement Law: Disability Retirement
- SB 623 (John Laird, D-Santa Cruz) Workers’ Compensation: Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
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May is Mental Health Awareness Month
May is Mental Health Awareness Month, and it is critical, now more than ever, to discuss behavioral health, PTSI, and suicide.
Firefighter behavioral health remains the biggest health and safety challenge facing our profession. Our members continue to die at their own hands in greater numbers than in traumatic line-of-duty deaths. We can’t let mental health be an afterthought, and we can’t succumb to the stigma that causes so many to suffer in silence.
For over five years, the California Fire Service Behavioral Health Task Force, co-chaired by Local 1014 President Dave Gillotte, has been working to help firefighters break through the barriers and become more resilient with Post-Traumatic Stress Injury (PTSI) and addressing the importance of behavioral health.
At the beginning of the month, you will receive a packet with tools and resources to help start conversations on mental health and resiliency. The Task Force also updated HealingOurOwn.org to have a wide variety of resources and available clinicians knowledgeable about firefighter needs.
Together we can bring down the growing number of suicides in our profession. Peer Support and Behavioral Health resources are available to any and all who feel they need them. You are never alone. |
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In Solidarity,
President Dave Gillotte and the Local 1014 Executive Board |
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