Brothers and Sisters,

Please log on to the Members area and vote on adopting or rejecting the trial 2 ON/ 3OFF schedule. The voting will begin August 10th at 0800 and end August 31st at 1700. The results will be provided at the upcoming September Union meeting. As a reminder you must have a active account in order to vote. Please contact Secretary Glorioso if you need assistance setting up member accounts.

STAY STRONG, STAY PROUD, STAY UNION

U.S. House of Representatives Gives Fire Fighters Collective Bargaining Rights July 1, 2010 -- The U.S. House of Representatives has approved a bill to give collective bargaining rights to fire fighters and other public safety officers. The Public Safety Employer-Employee Cooperation Act assures that fire fighters in every state will have the right to talk to their employer about how to improve public safety and do their jobs more safely. The initiative was included in a supplemental appropriation bill adopted by a vote of 239-182. “Seventy-five years after passage of the National Labor Relations Act, fire fighters are a step closer to having the same rights that workers in the private sector have had since 1935,” says IAFF General President Harold Schaitberger. While most fire fighters and law enforcement officers are already provided bargaining rights under state laws, too many public safety officers do not have the ability to present ideas about how they can better protect the public safety. The Public Safety Employer-Employee Cooperation Act will ensure that every state allows discussions between first responders and the agencies that employ them, and will promote productive partnerships between labor and management. Collective bargaining is especially important in light of the fiscal crisis facing many localities. Over the past two years, fire fighters have offered millions of dollars in concessions and given back raises and benefits previously agreed to in order to prevent cuts that would undermine public safety. The Senate will take up the measure following its July 4 recess.

Brothers and Sisters,

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!! This Union has finally reached its breaking point with our ongoing issues with our dispatch center. For far too many years we have been misled when we have been told ” things are going to get better” or “we don’t control the program”. Our members’ lives are put at risk EVERY time a request for service is made. Most importantly it is the PUBLIC, the ones we have taken an oath to protect, whose lives are being risked EVERY time they dial 911 to ask for help. Our resources are dispatched to the wrong addresses, the closest resource is not sent, and delays in dispatch of OVER 5 minutes are not uncommon! The Union has offered solutions, advice, and assistance to fix this problem, yet is continuously denied or have been pacified by feigned interest from management.

Today this Union asks for your help. We need our members to document dates, times and incidents to validate our claims. We also ask that any public safety agency who reciprocates services also contact us to provide us with documentation and or information. We also encourage the public to contact us, you can remain anonymous! Please forward clear, concise information and ensure that any personal information is redacted.

This Union has pledged to protect the public and our members and we will utilize every resource to achieve that goal.

LOCAL F33 RAISES $6400.00 FOR BURN INSTITUTE

On Wednesday April 21^st, 2010 members of Local F33 took to the streets to raise money for the San Diego and Imperial Counties Burn Institute. Thanks to the incredibly generous citizens of this great city we were able to raise $6400.00 in only 4 short hours! Thank you again to ALL who donated to this very worthy cause, and thank you our great Members who turned out (in the pouring rain!) to collect the money and represent our Local. Great job to ALL!

Brothers and Sisters,

Today a question was posed regarding the use of the Local F33 and the IAFF logo on a mail piece sent out by one of the candidates. The questioner felt that this could be construed as an   endorsement by the aforementioned parties. Let me be clear, this Local has not nor will not endorse candidates for its own Local Union elections. Local F33 has spoken to the IAFF regarding this issue and we can assure you that there is no endorsement from the IAFF either.

UNIFORM ALLOWANCE

Today the final list for the upgraded uniform allowance as well as the back pay component was finalized. The current/new uniform amount is $800.00 annual for current employees and $1600.00 annual for new hires. The final list sent reflected those employee types. The average amount per employee is about $1600.00, which is a result of FY 09 and FY 10 clothing check inequities. Local F33 will keep you updated on when to expect the monies to arrive. This will be determined by how the disbursements are negotiated. 

STAY STRONG, STAY PROUD, STAY UNION!

Mark your Calendars! Local F33 is hosting Union Officer and Steward training. This class will be held Tuesday April 27th, 2010 at the Hilton San Diego Bayfront. The class is open to ALL Federal Locals and will be taught by IAFF 16th District Vice President James Johnson. This class will be one day prior to the start of the CPF Convention. For more information or RSVP attendance please call President Massone at FS 17 (619)-556-7002.

Brothers and Sisters,

I wanted to give you all an update on various issues the Local is working on. As you are aware the FLRA has mandated a consolidation of ALL IAFF locals within the Region.  With that, Local F33 has been working very closely with the affected IAFF affiliates and the 16^th District Vice President to prepare for this consolidation. I can’t say much, other than impasse was declared and recently the parties met via conference call with the mediation impasse panel. Without going into specifics, after two and a half hours the parties agreed to proceed with another form of mediation, which will be supervised by the impasse panel. The Memberships patience and trust during this tedious process has been incredible! And we thank you all for your support. We expect mediation to go well and to have a tentative start date for negotiations soon and will keep you all apprised as the process’ slowly creep along.

On a more positive note, the IAFF Legislative Conference, held last month was a success. The IAFF has introduced more Federal Firefighter Legislation than ever! Most were perceived as minor, administrative fixes that garnered bi-partisan support during our lobbying. The more technical, read “costly” bills, also received unprecedented support from the California Congressional delegation and we hope to be able to report some very exciting news soon!

Here locally, the new schedule continues to improve, as tweaks and changes are made to many of the unintended and unanticipated consequences. Thank you all for your patience and more importantly, your suggestions and solutions! For quite some time the Local has been engaged in negotiating a MOU to allow shopping at commercial facilities while on duty. This has now become a priority given our new schedule and the necessity of our members to work multiple days. This is also directly tied to a proposed wellness fitness program. The IAFF/IAFC wellness fitness initiative has been proposed to management and will likely be put to committee for exploration and recommendations. Labor and Management also have a NFPA 1500 committee that was recently started and the Local is hopeful that many of the fundamental shortcomings of our Agency will be identified and solutions will be proposed for adoption/implementation. Thanks to recent direction and guidance from the Obama administration, as well as our current contract, Local F33 has reinvigorated the “Partnership Process”.  Labor and Management will soon meet and attempt to resolve longstanding issues affecting all of us. One key area we have identified is dispatch; Local F33 is committed to offering real solutions to a system that is, in our opinion broken at best and downright dangerous at worst! We will do everything in our power to keep our members and the public we are sworn to protect SAFE!

STAY STRONG, STAY PROUD, STAY UNION!

Below you will find pending Legislation affecting Federal Firefighters. The IAFF is asking individuals to contact their Representatives to ask that they "co-sponsor" this legislation. Members can find out who their Congressional Representatives contact information at: www.contactingthecongress.org.

Federal Fire Fighter Issues Currently Before Congress

HR 948 & S 599 (Presumptive Illness)

   Federal fire fighters, like all fire fighters, regularly respond to HAZMAT incidents involving chemical, radiological, and biological hazards.  Working in such a hazardous environment, it is virtually impossible to precisely identify when and where a fire fighter contracted a disease.

  Most states have acknowledged the occupational hazards attributed to fire fighting and have presumptive disability laws for fire fighters because it is so difficult for fire fighters to identify when and where they contracted an occupational disease.  Federal fire fighters do not have the benefit of a presumptive disability law.  Instead they are faced with a burden of proof that is nearly impossible to meet and only in extraordinary cases do federal fire fighters, suffering from occupational diseases, receive fair and just compensation or retirement benefits

   It is only fair that the federal government should provide parity for federal fire fighters who are exposed to the same occupational hazards as other professional fire fighters.  There is no legal or rational reason why federal fire fighters do not have the same right as fire fighters in 40 states.

HR 3186 (Retirement Equity)

The federal government’s retirement system uses a complicated formula to calculate pension benefits for federal fire fighters who protect military installations, veterans’ hospitals, and other critical federal properties. The complexity stems in large part from the unusual work week of federal fire fighters. Fire fighters employed by the Department of Defense normally work 72 hours per week, with 19 hours of mandatory, scheduled overtime, including nights, weekends and holidays.

In 1998, Congress reformed the pay system of federal fire fighters to ensure that they receive a fair hourly rate of pay. Despite improvements in the hourly wage rate, the reforms fell short of adequately incorporating a fire fighter’s entire pay, including compensation for mandatory overtime, into a fire fighter’s retirement benefit. Fire fighters are the only federal employees to work mandatory, scheduled overtime, and are the only federal workers whose pension is based on only part of their normal weekly pay.

To address this inequity, legislation has been developed to ensure that federal fire fighters are treated like other federal workers whose pension benefits are based on their full weekly salary.

HR 4239 (Retirement Tax Waiver)

Federal Fire Fighters are eligible for retirement at the age of 50 and mandatory retirement at age 57 due to the rigorous nature of their job.  Although eligible for retirement at age 50 and required mandatory separation at age 57 the fire fighters may not begin withdrawing from their Thrift Savings Plan without incurring a 10 percent penalty.

Most Federal Fire Fighters are covered under FERS, a system that became effective in 1987 and replaced the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS) as the primary plan  for U.S. federal civilian employees. Retirement benefits under FERS are accumulated in three ways:  a) through Social Security benefits, b) through a basic benefit plan for which the employee is charged a nominal amount and c) through a Thrift Savings Plan (TSP), which comprises automatic government contributions, voluntary employee contributions and matching government contributions. The TSP is a plan created by the Federal Employees Retirement System Act of 1986 for current or retired employees of the federal civil service. The TSP is a defined-contribution plan designed to give federal employees the same retirement savings related benefits that workers in the private sector enjoy with 401(k) plans. Contributions to the plan are automatically deducted from each paycheck.

Although eligible for retirement at age 50, if employees  receive a TSP distribution before  age 59½, in addition to the regular income tax, they have to pay an early withdrawal penalty tax equal to10% of any portion of the distribution not transferred or rolled over.

Federal Fire Fighters are seeking an amendment to the Internal Revenue Code through HR 4239 allowing retired federal fire fighters the same benefit most municipal and State fire fighters have under federal law.

HR 3243 (Trade Time)

Trade time is a practice that fire fighters utilize to work shifts for each other so they can be away from the workplace to attend family functions or tend to personal matters etc. 

Why do federal fire fighters utilize trade time?

Federal Fire Fighters work uncommon tours of duty and in the federal sector this is exasperated by a regularly scheduled 72 hour work week and minimum staffing requirements.  At the workplace, minimum staffing requirements dictate that a certain number of fire fighters be on duty at all times.  Although minimum staffing is an understood requirement, this can make it very difficult for federal fire fighters to be involved in family events or functions.  The problem is compounded by manpower shortages within the federal sector.  Currently it is taking between two to six months for a department to fill a vacancy when a fire fighter retires or leaves the work place.  As a result, many requests for annual leave are not granted due to the minimum staffing needs and manpower shortages.

Can federal fire fighters trade time now?

Yes, however they are only permitted to trade time within one (two week) pay period.  This means that if one employee works for another the time must be repaid within that pay period.  Often employees are unable to repay the time during the single pay period and this has the effect of preventing the employees from trading the time.

Does trade time result in any extra pay?

No, trade time is an issue that is between the employees with the knowledge and approval of management.  Neither employee receives any extra compensation; it is merely a trade of “time”.

What does HR 4239 do?

The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) permits the trading of time by firefighters of public agencies. Employees engaged in fire protection are permitted to trade time for periods up to 1 calendar year. Unfortunately the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) has determined that Federal firefighters are not entitled to trade time beyond a pay period.  HR 4239 would allow federal fire fighters to trade time in the same manner as their municipal counterparts.          

Brothers and Sisters,

Today the Union and management finalized and SIGNED the MOU necessary to begin the 2on/3off schedule.

The effective date will be February 14, 2010. A copy can be found in the MOU section, as well as the message board area.

Thank you all for your patience, support and understanding while this agreement was finalized.

STAY STRONG, STAY PROUD, STAY UNION!

Brothers and Sisters,

President Obama has signed the Defense Authorization Act. Included in the Legislation is the REPEAL of NSPS beginning 2012. This was the Pay for Performance plan implemented by the last administration which would have ultimately done away with workplace and personnel protections under the auspices of pay for performance. The Act was extremely ANTI-Union and was fought by a consortium of Labor organizations, including IAFF 16th District Vice-President Jim Johnson. THANK YOU!!!

Equity was finally achieved for FERS retirees. FERS employees will receive credit for UNUSED sick leave toward their retirement annuity. Similar to what CSRS retirees have enjoyed for years.  This benefit will hopefully encourage workers to use their sick leave wisely since they will receive credit upon retirement.

Brothers and Sisters,

As almost all of you are aware, early this year Management petitioned the FLRA to consolidate all IAFF bargaining units in the Region. This request was granted and the process has been ongoing ever since. Recently a committee was formed to begin drafting a new Collective Bargaining Agreement, this process has just begun and we are working closely with IAFF leadership and all other affiliates affected in crafting this new document.

If Members have constructive ideas, concepts, proposals, or questions relating to this process please contact any of the following committee members:

President Massone

Vice-President Fredericks

Vice-President Larsen

Trustee Squier

Congratulations and THANK YOU to ALL who participated in the 2009 MDA "Fill the Boot" boot drive. Special Kudos go to Firefighter Anthony Glorioso, our MDA coordinator for making this year an unbelievable success. Below is a thank you from MDA.

ATTENTION

All members who have not yet received A union card from the IAFF please send me an e-mail no later then October 1, with your full name.  I am gathering a list to cross reference with the IAFF to ensure that you do get your card and member # from them.  My e-mail is ray.macias@navy.mil thank you