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Brothers and Sisters,
WHAT LOVE YOUR MANAGEMENT SHOWS THE MEMBERSHIP ON VALENTINE'S DAY-NEGOTIATIONS RESUME
This week, both fringe benefits and salary negotiations for public safety unions resumed following the last month of wildfire conflagrations. Given all that our members have done for the Department and the community over the last month, we expected the Fire Chief's staff and the CEO to, at a minimum, show up prepared and ready to talk numbers, but we were disappointed. It seems they are happy to exploit the images of our members putting their lives on the line, but when the cameras turned off, they immediately disrespected the hard work of our members, offering only disgraceful proposals with no money attached and insinuating our members are digenrates on top of that they proposed language which would cripple your union's ability to fight for you. This was a huge slap in the face and will not be tolerated.
We told the bargaining team that we will not hesitate to bring this to the public, the Kenneth Hahn Hall of Administration, and the steps of 1320 N. Eastern Avenue if needed to remind them who does the work and who needs to be legitimately valued as the number one tool in the service to our communities. We have suggested that the Fire Chief reprimand his staff and reiterate that his number one priority is the members. Our contract ended on December 31st, 2024. We intend to push hard to settle a fair contract in short order.
We will begin bargaining again on February 19th for Fringe Benefits and on February 27th for salary. The CEO has promised a full counter proposal to start engaging in good faith. We look forward to the grind to get it done, and we are not interested in a ballet of meetings just to meet, and if necessary, we will do everything it takes to ensure we get a fair bargaining process on behalf of our members. |
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DEPARTMENT CHIEFS ON A RAMPAGE WITH DISCIPLINE
If you get an intent to suspend, reduce, or terminate letter, please call the Union for representation early. Don’t delay, and don’t navigate this process alone. The Department IS NOT YOUR FRIEND, NOR ARE THE CHIEFS IN THIS PROCESS.
Most of the Chief Officers have not forgotten where they came from and will advise our members to seek Union Representation, and we thank them for their continued leadership. Unfortunately, this is not the case with all.
Union members have a right to a Skelly Interview to discuss the issue and bring evidence and facts that mitigate the issue. The Department has unilaterally placed an arbitrary and unfair 30-day time limit into the letters. You have 10 business days to respond to the Intent Letter to preserve your Skelly rights. A simple call and or email will preserve your right to meet. We can navigate requests for information to prepare for Skelly, and we will meet at a time of mutual convenience after we have all materials and have prepared as is our legal right.
With vehicle accidents, the Department continues to delay and or absolve themselves of the responsibility to train our members annually and to train on the heels of an “ACCIDENT”. Instead, the Department chooses to default to punitive discipline. No discussions, no member follow-up, and no real tangible training were provided. While we know some rare instances of damage to vehicles have come from negligence and operator error, those cases can and should be dealt with individually.
FIBOR protects you and gives you the right to respond in writing with your version of the facts. Additionally, the Grievance Procedure allows you to grieve the issue on a Form 377 and call the Union for help. The Grievance Form 377 can be found on the intranet.
We want every member to file a grievance, go into the office of the Chief Officers writing these mindless letters, and have a frank face-to-face discussion on the offense and why the discipline is being issued.
Our Department is better than this, especially with the current staffing climate. We have been negotiating to have a proactive defensive driver training program that will, along with a Vehicle Accident Review Board, consisting of labor and management, begin to reduce our accidents and help our members respond safely in dangerous driving environments. |
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Union Legal Action Regarding FMLA
In January, Local 1014 became aware that Department Human Resources, at the direction of OHP, changed their determination of how our employees qualify for FMLA eligibility. Specifically, this concerns the requirement of 1,250 hours and 12 months of service for FMLA eligibility.
OHP made a unilateral decision to "change the goalposts," violating meet and confer rules protected by our MOU and the Meyers-Milias-Brown Act for collective bargaining. The change was also implemented unilaterally by the Department of Human Resources without any warning or discussion, further violating their contractual obligation, resulting in FMLA denials for some of our members.
In addition to ignoring Article 15 for meet and confer on such items, at the heart of this, the unilateral change ignores clear MOU language that defines our work period under FLSA. Our longstanding MOU language defining our work period includes that all benefit time is considered hours worked for the establishment of our work period as required under FLSA law.
Local 1014, along with our legal team, responded immediately and has filed an unfair labor practice charge against the county to address this egregious violation of employee rights protected under MOU and other provisions under the law.
If you have been impacted or denied FMLA because of any benefit time use - including vacation, holiday, sick pay, comp time, 4850 time, etc. - please contact:
Please include your employee information and a brief description of your situation where there's been a denial of FMLA.
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| This week, Local 1014 Directors Chris Reade and Chris Reynoso spoke to and hosted lunch for Recruit Class 175 at their Peer Support Day. |
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YOUR PENSION AT WORK
At the end of January 2025, 1014 Director Jason Green, in the capacity as your elected representative at LACERA, attended the NCPERS (National Conference on Public Employee Retirement Systems) Legislative Conference in Washington, DC.
NCPERS, established in 1941, is the largest trade association working on behalf of public retirement systems. It encompasses over 500 plan sponsors and stakeholders who oversee approximately $6 trillion in retirement funds. Thier mission is to protect and expand pension access through advocacy, innovative research, and education. LACERA has been an active participant with NCPERS.
The annual legislative conference is part of that education and advocacy effort, where Director Green and others met with politicians to lobby and communicate about potential legislative threats that could negatively impact our pension retirement system. This lobbying effort has proven to be crucial and effective in protecting retiree interests.
A significant highlight of this year's conference was discussing the recent repeal of WEP (Windfall Elimination Provision) and GPO (Government Pension Offset). After years of dedicated work by all to eliminate these provisions, President Joe Biden signed the Social Security Fairness Act (HR 82) into law on January 5, which repealed both these programs. These provisions had previously caused significant impact by reducing Social Security benefits for government pension recipients, including their spouses.
However, potential challenges remain on the horizon for this repeal during the reconciliation process. During discussions in the Senate, Senator Grassley from Iowa attempted to offer an amendment to the repeal that would have mandated Social Security coverage for all government pensions. While this amendment was ultimately not included in the bill, it could resurface during the reconciliation process and would have significant financial implications if approved.
The conference also provided opportunities for robust discussions with pension representatives from across the country, including talks of the concerning development highlighted in Utah's HB267.
This type of collective bargaining reform has been identified in an NCPERS publication, "The Hidden Cost of Pension Reforms" (available on their website), as one of the key factors impacting pension systems. This comprehensive study examines several critical issues, including lower union participation, loss of collective bargaining rights, and pension reform legislation like PEPRA (Public Employees' Pension Reform Act), which we are all too familiar with.
Despite the challenges ahead, there are significant positive developments to report. The repeal of WEP and GPO represents an important victory, and there's encouraging news at the local level as well. LACERA staff recently conducted an analysis of final compensation calculations for PEPRA members, resulting in a favorable determination that will benefit many members.
It was determined that within the parameters of the law, PEPRA members' final compensation calculations for their highest three years could use scheduled hours rather than actual (realized)earnings from only the hours worked. CERL (County Employees Retirement Law of 1937), also known as the '37 Act, establishes that plan administrators (LACERA) may determine calculations of final compensation, and when there is ambiguity in the law, it is prudent to err on the side of the pensioner.
This represents a significant improvement for our PEPRA members in determining their retirement compensation. The hard work by LACERA staff to look at this and to take on the challenge of evaluating the ability within the law is monumental. The new calculation process was ratified by a unanimous vote of the Board of Retirement, demonstrating strong support for this member-friendly interpretation.
If you'd like further information or have questions on your pension, please feel free to call Jason Green at jgreen@local1014.org.
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CALIFORNIA PROFESSIONAL FIREFIGHTERS (CPF) - DISTRICTS 1 AND 2
This week, we attended the CPF District 1 & 2 meeting. Special thanks to Ari, Glendale Local 776's Union President and his Board for hosting us all for fruitful and powerful conversations on the issues and budget items facing our collective members.
We met and spoke of many items related to the fires, including the Cal Fire Brothers and Sisters' push to convert their seasonal firefighters to full-time firefighters. This comes on the heels of our work to get them the 66-hour work week, just 10 hours away from our schedule, and if this takes shape, just like the hour reduction and hiring LA County and the other Contract Counties will also realize the pro-rata formula monies on grey book and pre-po staffing.
We talked with the Contract Counties to ensure, along with Cal-Fire, we track these monies and ensure they not only come to the Contract Counties, but that our administrations are spending them appropriately on staffing and operations not on bullshit programs or other such non-essential work.
We have also launched a Labor-Management alliance to work on increasing Contract Counties' monies from the State for SRA area, Camps, and Crews and Aircraft independent of the Cal-Fire pro-rata monies. We all have an uphill climb to get this done, but on the back of the fires and the public sentiment and our elected official's attention, including the governor, we might be able to land.
In addition, the feds have begun an aggressive plan to reduce staffing for federal firefighters and forest service. We have managed to hold off Firefighters from any of the firings and freezes, but all other staff critical to the operations have been kicked to the curb.
We will be standing with our federal firefighters as their rights and protections have been eroded and the threat of layoffs looms. We hope our work with the administration and our endorsement of the Secretary of Labor Lori Chavez-DeRemer will be helpful in protecting our members. |
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In Solidarity,
President Dave Gillotte and the Local 1014 Executive Board |
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