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Dear Brothers and Sisters:
The top order of business you as members of Local 798 want answered is, I would imagine, “Where are we in our contract negotiations?” As you are aware, our contract expired July 1, 2001, and we have been at the table bargaining since April. We are down to a few major items. We have met with Mayor Brown, Steve Kava, and John Holtzman, all representing the City. I would hope things could be worked out soon!!
Your Team of myself and the Three Wise Men, (Kelly, Moriarty, and O’Connor) have done an excellent job of representing your interests. Because our job has changed so much in the past couple of years (Radio, Paramedics) it has become a complicated and time-consuming adventure. At times, we are negotiating three (3) separate contracts. Keep positive thoughts coming our way, and hope that we can wrap this up soon.
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In addition we have been negotiating on Chief Trevino’s pilot program the 1 and 1 Ambulance. Where a Firefighter would ride the Ambulance and a Medic would ride the Engine. What alarms me is the Rescue Captains, who are negotiating on behalf of the City, casually look at our jobs as, “Anybody can do it”! Training to the wind. Those of us, who have been down that Hallway with a line, when everyone with any sense has left the building, know it takes strength, experience, and skills. Our job is not one where you see a video, take a test, say the right buzz words, and leave. We take pride in what we do; firefighting is one tough job. If you have not done it, then do not tell us how it should be done. You have no idea, when things go wrong, our people die!!!! One can also tie this type of logic into our Physical Agility Test; it does not reflect the true Physical aspects of our job. If an individual makes the argument (which they have to me) that anyone can do the job of a Firefighter, and the Physical is fine now, then that person has not done his homework, and studied our job, or seen us at work during a fire. This merger of equals, with no added expense to the City is getting more complicated, with higher risk of danger daily! With any downturn in the economy, our business of Fighting Fires picks up; we’ve seen a tremendous amount of fires in the past six (6) months. So.
Be Safe & Keep The Faith, and God Bless America,
John Hanley
President
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