7th District Report
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| Dave Gillotte |
In the very busy 7th District, the Los Angeles County Fire Fighters Local 1014 membership continues to face the dynamic challenges that most every other fire union faces in California. Most recently, we were hit with some funding cuts that will affect Los Angeles County and Orange County Fire Protection Districts as a result of Cal Fire 2881's direct hit in the final adopted state budget.
We rely on the lobbying team of CPF and President Paulson's careful eye to act on the issues that affect our members as a result of the budget. While we are actively engaged and watchful ourselves and work with partners in our fire chief and the County of LA and contract counties' chiefs, sometimes things get finished that we didn't see coming.
We have been watching the State Responsibility Area (SRA) funding mechanisms and the redevelopment agency items because they directly affect our funding and new revenue potential, but the impact of reductions in augmented staffing to Cal Fire in the Southern California from around 20-25 engines to 10 engines including the engines that we staff with that funding was a shot fired we didn't see coming.
We will be working very closely with Cal Fire 2881 and CPF to ensure that not only do we battle the instant cuts, but also the potential of SRA fees (taxes) being levied in the SRA area that Los Angeles County protects as a contracting county. Those areas have always been our work jurisdiction and we have always provided the wildland and watershed protection, as well as BLS, ALS and air operations, Haz-Mat, USAR and other specialized services. For 15 years now, we have had a current "special fire tax" in place. Combine that with regular property tax dedicated for LA County Fire Protection District and you can clearly see that a third SRA fee or tax cannot and will not be tolerated by Local 1014.
Special thanks to Cal Fire and CPF for opposing these budget items, but it is clear we have much work to do to protect current funding and any future funding through RDA agreements. No different than other unions, we, too, battle to stabilize current funding, and protect or generate future revenue.
As we hit the streets to continue with the great tradition of Fill the Boot for MDA, we raised nearly $300,000 again this year in this tight economy and we are proud to give our support. This year was particularly personal because in addition to many of our sisters and brothers' families being affected by the diseases associated with ALS, we had two of our brothers pass away from ALS-related diseases: an active duty brother (a 44 year old with two kids) and a retired brother with 15 years in the bank post-retirement. Both funerals were held during the FTB Drive, with the active brother's funeral on our final day of Fill the Boot with sisters and brothers hitting the streets in the morning prior to paying our respects. May our brothers rest in peace. The MDA staff, the Executive Board and the membership did an outstanding job pulling this together and we are lucky to have had the help.
Local 1014 members also have been facing the continued challenges of return-to-work and workers' compensation issues. Not new to anyone in California, we are now engaged in trying to negotiate a workers' compensation carve out agreement. We are at the table now trying to craft a system that actually works and gets our members treated and back to work in a timely manner. Hard to believe that even the presumptive injuries and illnesses would be hard to navigate for our administrators and chief officers, but as you all laugh a bit, we battle the same battle as you all do ... ignorance and ambivalence unless it affects you personally ... and some chiefs have now begun to see the light. We hope to craft an agreement like a few other agencies have done, and get out of the third party administrator dartboard of treatment policy.
Local 1014 is also embarking on a venture of a different sort this year. We are spearheading an effort to represent all of our members more effectively by starting a "Women in the Fire Service Issue Commission." Rumors were already starting about the "New Women's Only Union", but nothing could be further from the truth. So many times department managers and County administrators cannot deal with issues that affect woman because they are so scared and uncomfortable about these issues, much less acknowledging that certain things apply to women who have carved into what used to be an all-male profession.
Well, we decided to blow the lid off of the rhetoric, kill the fantasy issues, put some reason and math, and fairness into analyzing the "issues" and got to work on them. Why? Because we represent many great members in all ranks who happen to be women. They also happen to be men and all happen to be of different nationalities, religions, sexes, body shapes, strengths and weaknesses. We wanted to get the 800-pound elephant out of the corner and into sane professional conversation and action. As luck would have it, the issues, believe it or not, affect not only the women who serve in our department, but also the men. We even have some women who not only serve proudly and do a great job, but have honorably served our country in Iraq and Afghanistan before getting a bear on their badge.
Bottom line: we are off and running, tackling simple to very complex issues with a grassroots, member- and union-supported commission with effective lobbying power and an approach that no longer separates and isolates, but rather incorporates the very old school way of considering issues on their merits and nothing else. We hope to contribute efforts to end up with a system that provides for and ultimately judges and accommodates all firefighters, based on quality of job performance, standards that apply to all, method and state-of-the-art training and equipment and of course wages and working conditions that spend the same for all!
Our political action work is never done. We are finally figuring out it is a way of life for us and we are watching the state and federal redistricting efforts to see what effect it will have on vote count. We are also continuing with our local political action efforts in some of our contract cities, again most notably in Monterey Park where our Monterey Park 1014-represented members continue to work hard to get a survey to the table to become LA County Fire Fighters. We are as close to getting that job done as anyone has been in nearly 20 years. There is much to be done with continued election cycles and initiatives as well as vote count, but we are on track, and we negotiated for the second contract extension in a row - no losses for the MP Firefighters and protections that no other groups will be getting as we continue to move towards a potential annexation deal. The MP Firefighters are strong and are always there for their own issues, as well as statewide issues.
As this addition goes to print we are tracking the language and the effects of AB 210, SB 457 and AB 340 relative to EMS, Workers Comp, and 37 Act Retirement Issues...stay tuned to see what the outcome of those important bills have on us all.
There is so much more to come with negotiations set to potentially start for Fire and Sheriff at the end of the year as our contract extensions come to close. The economy continues to improve but at such a sluggish rate, it is hard to tell if the balance sheet can remain balanced. We will keep you posted as we once again move through the stormy sea.