WINTER 2020 Photo by South Bay Fire Photo
THE NOZZLE
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PRESIDENT’S PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE MESSAGE Sisters and Brothers, As we close out what has been an unprecedented and difficult year for our members and our nation, we also acknowledge that these difficulties have given us an opportunity to rise up and meet the moment as we continue to provide world-class service to our LA County residents despite challenges of COVID-19, massive wildfires and increasing call loads. We have overcome a lot, but there is still much to do and your Union is continuing the fight for our members and their families. We have a difficult road ahead as your Union continues to fight for funding and avoid budget cuts in the midst of the pandemic. We have our contract expiring on December 31 and we are already beginning the process of reviewing the entire budget concerning revenues, budget shortfalls, expenditures, and expenses for our nearly $1.4 billion Fire Protection District. These are trying times, and there is no magic wand to keep our balance sheet neutral. We will be battling proposed cuts to many items up to and including staffing. To date, we have fought off any major attack towards our service delivery model. The shortfall is projected to be nearly $40 million this year and next. We will be working on setting priorities with the Department to deal with any shortfall. Chasing revenues and economic efficiencies will be challenging, to say the least, but we are committed to helping the Department find solutions. We will keep you informed as we progress in our talks and the resulting efforts.
Dave Gillotte President Los Angeles County Firefighters Local 1014
Earlier this year, our membership voted to lobby for a trial of the 48/96 shift schedule. We are continuing to push hard with the Fire Chief on this voted item for our members. We are not asking for permission to work to implement a trial shift schedule change, but we are negotiating to gain and earn the Fire Chief’s support for the trial. We have met over the last two months to answer questions, educate, and evaluate the impact of the proposed trial. This rests with the Fire Chief, and for the last several weeks, I have been providing additional information and data as the Chief considers his position. We have also approached the Board of Supervisors to educate them on this issue and hopefully get a trial going soon. To this end, we have distributed both a 48-96 and Kelly Schedule calendar for 2021 electronically to members. You can download these calendars on our website www.local1014.org. Finally, we want to thank all members who ran for the 1014 Executive Board seats in Local 1014’s Election. Congratulations to Brothers Mike Cash and Tony Carcioppolo who will be joining the Executive Board and become part of the TEAM of TEN, representing over 3,200 members. There is much work to be done and as fiduciaries and executives for one of the nation’s largest and most powerful Unions. They will have a lot to get up to speed on in a short timeframe as we are in negotiations, working on starting a 48/96 one-year trial, and protecting our staffing from projected budget cuts. We will get them sworn in via Zoom so all our members can share in the proud moment when they become part of a legacy of leaders in Local 1014. Congratulations again! We would also like to say thank you to retiring 2nd Vice President Dave Morse who has served the Union for 18 years. Thank you for everything you have done for our membership and our Union. We have fought some tough battles together we have come out victorious for the membership. You have been a friend to me personally and always a staunch advocate for our members. You will be missed on the Union Board but we are thankful that you will continue to serve on The Local 1014 Health Trust as a Trustee continuing to serve our members and our families. In Solidarity,
Dave Gillotte President LA County Firefighters Local 1014
We have overcome a lot, but there is still much to do and your Union is continuing the fight for our members and their families."
TABLE OF CONTENTS & UPCOMING EVENTS
INSIDE THIS ISSUE President’s Message Farewell from 2nd Vice President Dave Morse Welcoming The City of Vernon to the LA County Family Two Comfort Dogs Join LA County’s Peer Support Program Year-End Legislative Update Continuing to Fight for Capatins AP Appeals Congratulations to Graduating Classes 158, 159 and 160!
Photo by Ken Morris
FAREWELL
Farwell from 2nd Vice President Dave Morse As my time on Local 1014’s Executive Board comes to a close, I wanted to give some thanks to the people who have made my time on the Executive Board possible and talk and highlight a few of the incredible things we have been able to accomplish for our members. I have had the honor of serving on the Local 1014 Executive Board for 18 years. For the last six years, I have been honored to serve as both 1st and 2nd Vice President. I want to say thank you to those that served before me and those who helped guide me during my first years on the Executive Board. There are too many to list here but you know who you are. Without the invaluable knowledge that you all passed on to me, I would not have been able to serve the membership. Our Union is one of the strongest in this state. We are well respected nationally and we have built a reputation of a Union that not only fights for its members but fights for all those in the Fire Service. We have accomplished so much for our members during my time. We have left a lasting legacy for our profession with critical legislation like Cancer Presumption, and now COVID-19 Presumption. We have also secured our critical health and safety legislation and fought for better hours, wages, and working conditions. The Los Angeles County Fire is the Department people flock to from other departments because of the work of this Union to ensure our members are taken care of like no other Department. I have always tried to represent the membership to the best of my ability and always based my decisions on what was best for the majority. I have made many friendships with all ranks within the Department from Chiefs to staff. While we may not have always seen eye-to-eye on every issue, we respected each other’s opinions (most of the time). For all the crews who worked to cover me while I was doing Union work, I cannot say thank you enough. All of us at the Union Hall couldn’t do what we do without your help and support. To all the staff at the Union Hall thank you for all you do for our members and us each day. You make it happen and you give the directors and the members the support they need. To all the guys I have worked alongside at the Union, thank you for all your work and for your friendships. I will never forget you. To the membership, thank you for allowing me to be your voice for all these years. To Dave Gillotte, thank you for your leadership over the years, you have truly guided us to be a Union respected by all, it’s an honor to call you my friend. My final thank you is the most important, thank you to my family and my wife, Desiree. I will never be able to say thank you enough for your support. Desiree has put up with so much over these past 18 years, from me being gone on my days off, to being in the car taking calls from members or Chiefs for hours on end, including one notable time on our way to our anniversary dinner. She has always understood that when the phone rings it is because a member needed help and she has supported that effort. I love you beyond words.
As I close out this chapter of my Union service, I am looking forward to retirement and continuing to serve our members and their families as a Trustee for our Local 1014 Health Plan. Please continue to fight for our profession and support the Union Executive Board as they battle for benefits for our families. We can never take what we have for granted. I have been blessed as you all are to work for the finest Fire Department in the nation and I am proud to have been a Local 1014 Union member.
VERNON JOINS LA COUNTYContinued
Welcoming the City of Vernon to the LA County Family Last month, we welcomed the City of Vernon to the Los Angeles County Fire Department! This has been many years in the making and we are happy to welcome them to our Local 1014 family! Local 1014 fought hard to ensure that ALL the members of the Vernon Fire Department were treated equally and made the transition to join LA County despite the Department’s attempts to hold up this process for some of Vernon’s members. Our Local 1014 Union together with the Vernon Firemen’s Association Local 2312 stood in solidarity to ensure that all members were treated fairly. Special thank you to the City Council of Vernon and our own Supervisor Hilda Solis for her steadfast commitment to the community. To commemorate Supervisor Solis’ commitment to our members, Local 1014 presented her with a 1014 helmet and a plaque of the Vogue feature on our LACOFD members.
PEER SUPPORT COMFORT DOGS
Two Comfort Dogs Join LA County’s Peer Support Program In October, the Los Angeles County Fire Department officially accepted the donation of two fully trained peer support dogs from the nation’s leading dog training foundations, the Thor’s Hope Foundation in partnership with Performance K9 Training, Inc. and the Patriotic Service Dog Foundation, to launch the new Peer Support K9 Program. Dogs “Milo” and “Echo” were specially selected and completed hundreds of hours of intense specialized training to support firefighters with PTSD or high levels of anxiety in a variety of situations and settings. They not only assist in identifying individuals experiencing increased levels of stress, they are also trained to comfort those individuals. These two dogs are the first in a new Peer Support K9 Program in the Los Angeles County Fire Department. Both dogs have already been deployed to assist firefighters and first responders on the Bobcat Fire. Over the last five years, the number of suicides for firefighters has surpassed the number of line of duty deaths nationwide. As our firefighters face an unprecedented wildfire season and ever-increasing call loads with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the mental and physical health of our firefighters has never been more critical. The addition of peer support dogs will help first responders manage stress and anxiety during large-scale incidents and extended deployments. Thank you to Chief Osby and Chief Whittle for their support of this program. This is an example of how the labor and management work together to get the best outcomes and the best programs to support our members and their families. Special thanks to the Board of Supervisors who has committed funding and support for the expansion of this program and for our Firefighters.
Photo by Bernie Deyo
LEGISLATIVE UPDATE
Year End Legislative Update Your Local 1014 Executive Board has been very busy on the legislative front lobbying support from Assembly and Senate members in our District. As we have said many times, political action is the most powerful tool we have to ensure that our members have the benefits, wages, and working conditions they need to remain safe and healthy as we serve the public. In order for our firefighter-sponsored bills to pass we need both sides of the house, both parties, and the Governor’s support. Your Local 1014 Executive Board works constantly to ensure that our elected officials at every level of government understand the issues for our members as well as the benefits vs cost to get it done. This your Executive Board weighed in on every bill through our robust advocacy efforts to ensure that every State Senator, Assemblymember, and the Governor embraced these bills and their passage into law. Thank you to the California Professional Firefighters (CPF) Legislative Team and all our brother and sister affiliates for the hard work. COVID-19 made things even more difficult to navigate with communication and meetings being done virtually, but we got it done! Take a look at the list of firefighter-sponsored legislation that has been signed into law this year below. • AB 1544 (Gipson) – Community Paramedicine or Triage to Alternate Destination Act (Status: Signed by Governor) • SB 1044 (Allen) – Firefighting equipment and foam: PFAS chemicals (Status: Signed by Governor) • AB 2967 (O’Donnell) – Public Employee’s Retirement System: contracting agencies: exclusion from membership (Status: Signed by Governor) • AB 2068 (Petrie-Norris) – Voluntary tax contributions: California Firefighters Memorial Fund: California Police Officer Memorial Foundation Fund (Status: Signed by Governor) • SB 1159 (Hill) – Workers’ compensation: COVID-19: critical workers (Status: Signed by Governor) • AB 1867 – Small employer family leave mediation: supplemental paid sick leave (Status: Signed by Governor) • AB 685 (Reyes) – COVID-19: Imminent hazard to employees: exposure: notification: serious violations (Status: Signed by Governor)
Photo by Juan Guerra
USAR TEAM
LA County USAR Team Celebrates 30th Anniversary This October we celebrated the 30th anniversary of the Los Angeles County Fire Department’s Urban Search and Rescue (USAR)! Local 1014 members built the program from the ground up, brick by brick. Our USAR team is known as Task Force 2 and is one of only two UASI certified and Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) certified international teams able to respond to disasters and emergencies worldwide. Our team has responded several major international and national incidents including September 11th World Trade Center recovery, Hurricane Katrina and Rita, Christ Church New Zealand and Haiti and Mexico Earthquakes, the Sri-Lanka and Japan Tsunamis, the Atlanta Olympic Bombing, the Paradise Fire Recovery, and many many more incidents. Our members put themselves in harm’s way to rescue people around the world. For the last 30 years, Local 1014 has fought for the funding and the use of TF-2 through advocacy at the Congressional, Senate and Presidential level to ensure our team and the system stays funded and protected. Your Executive Board has walked the halls in Washington DC halls on behalf of this program and our team. When the team called us and proposed added a PM spot to the team for protecting their own, we listened, crafted a plan and negotiated that change as well. We take great pride in all our USAR team members accomplish. Please take a minute honor the members of Local 1014, both past and present who have made this team an amazing part of our rich and diverse history in the fire service. We would especially like to acknowledge our Former 1014 Pres-ident and President Emeritus of the International Association of Firefighter (IAFF) Al Whitehead who spearheaded this effort as President. We set the trends, we pave the way, we craft the future.
CAPTAIN’S AP APPEAL
Continuing to Fight for Captain’s AP Appeals By Director Pat Dolan By now, all of the members who filed appeals should have received their letter from the Department of Human Resources with the results of the Labor/Management meeting, if there were points granted or not granted, and if there was any additional movement on the current promotional list. For those that didn’t receive the credit you were appealing, the letter also spells out the next step in your appeal rights. For those members that chose to file an appeal at the Civil Service Commission level, please be advised that this step moves at what can only be considered a “glacial pace.” It is a long, slow process. Please refrain from calling the Union Hall on a weekly basis and ask for the status of your appeal. Trust us, you will know the status of your appeal before anyone else does. Please be sure to check your personal email and look for notifications in your Inbox and also your Junk Mail folder, as sometimes the notifications end up there. With COVID-19 protocols still in place, the Civil Service Commission will probably be conducting business virtually, so be prepared for that as well. In the meantime, stay patient and informed by periodically checking the Los Angeles Civil Service Commission website, as well as your email and let Local 1014 know when, and if, you receive any notifications.
Photo by Ken Morris
DRILL TOWER
Congratulations to Graduating Classes 158, 159 and 160! Congratulations to the newest members of the Local 1014 and the Los Angeles County Fire Department from Classes 158, 159 and 160! This year, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, your Union has remained committed to holding the Department accountable to the goal of consistent staffing and hiring. With the new challenges brought on by the pandemic and the nature of our drill tower training, we worked outside the box to create a “COVD-19 Environment Drill Tower.� We are proud to say that this year we have added over 250 exempary new Firefighters from five classes into our ranks and helped to backfill as we see calls and wildfires rise throughout the County and the State. These classes represent not only the future of our Department but also the dedication, collaboration, and ingenuity of our labor-management partnership to get this done in a COVID-19 world. In an unprecedented time, both the Department and the Union came together to meet the challenge and get the state firefighter curriculum and training needs of the Los Angeles County Fire Department into a format that would allow us to train our newest members and also be compliant with social distancing and isolation needs. Congratulations to the newest members of Local 1014 and may you be safe and richly rewarded as you travel on your Los Angeles County Firefighter journey.
Photo by Juan Guerra
LOS ANGELES COUNTY FIREFIGHTERS LOCAL 1014 3460 FLETCHER AVE., EL MONTE, CA 91731 LOCAL1014.ORG