January 2, 2019
Happy New Year !
New Year’s Eve contingency plans – Here’s a brief outline on what we’ve done recently to address our staffing issues.
On December 27, 2018 the FDNY issued an order to help them with their staffing issues.
On March 8, April 23, April 30 May 15, June 18, June 25 2018 we testified at a council hearing regarding EMS staffing and wages.
On November 5 we met with the Commission to discuss our staffing issues.
On December 6 we wrote Commissioner Nigro asking him to postpone the last promotion class past January 11, 2019 as we get a wave of new EMTs and Medics which will alleviate the staffing shortage.
On December 12 we met with Commissioner Nigro to once again address our
staffing issues.
We have addressed and warned the Dept. numerous times that the Promotion will
cause staffing issues running EMS efficiently.
On Dec 27, two business days before New Year’s Eve, the dept. came out with the
new year contingency plan. We immediately objected to this policy, we had
a private firm and DC37 working on stopping, there were no grounds to file an
injunction.
Our only recourse now is to file a grievance/improper practice.
With that being said, the dept. pulls this every year, this was never
challenged/grieved in the past, it was only dealt with phone calls, hence why
they keep doing this every year.
We have always said in order to make a change we need to push against the dept.
thru legal in order to achieve actual policy change.
The challenge we face is members will post their gripe on Facebook, but in
general members won’t step forward to generate paperwork or testify against the
dept.
We want to reassure the membership that we’ll be filing a
grievance/improper practice against the FDNY, but in order for us to be
successful we will need the members willingness to come forward with providing
their names, a statement saying they were in the KVO program or did 2 shifts a
week and still got mandated.
City council hearing – on January
14, at 1pm a city council hearing will be held to address the impact of new
developments in Long Island City to emergency services.
We need
our members to fill those halls, we hope to see you there.
Legislation – In the coming weeks
we’ll introduce the following legislation:
* 25 & out for our Fire Inspectors
* Tier 6 reform – matching contributions to tier 4 members
*
Parental leave buy back – gives our members the option to buy back time for
unpaid parental leave.
* Article 78 – allows the courts to override NYCERS denials of 3/4 disability
pension.
Re introduced * MTA legislation
Future legislations that is currently being drafted – Make EMS an essential service.
Contract Committee – We held a few meeting late 2018 with the membership – January 7 the Executive Board will meet to draft an introduction of our proposal, once established we will call on a meeting for our members to see the proposal and direction the local is heading. Once established, we will request a start date with the city to start our contract negotiations.
Unlimited sick leave – We have recently achieved unlimited sick leave for our ill and injured WTC members, while this benefit is long overdue, we are pleased to finally have this much needed benefit available.
Our understanding that members will be able to start utilizing this benefit sometime mid-January. A detailed process on how to utilize this benefit will be made available in the coming days.
FPI – We have a labor management meeting tomorrow to address some of your issues, such as boots, annual medical screening ( at least for those that were involved during 9/11), harnesses.
Assaults – It is never pleasant to hear when one of our sisters or brothers is assaulted.
On January 18 our local will be meeting with Fire Commissioner Daniel Nigro to discuss the ongoing threat and challenges are members face each day.
We have proposed options in the past, additional protection, self-defense, conflict resolutions, we hope the dept. will take the necessary steps to protect its members.
Furthermore, we are working with the Brooklyn District Attorney on a public service announcement, stay tuned.
Inclosing, we are facing some challenges this coming year, specifically due to the change of policy makers up in Albany. We have faced challenges in the past, we are prepared to once again face them.
The future is in our hands, together we can overcome many of these challenges. Our members deserve a better quality of life, we will work hard on your behalf to achieve them.
As always be strong and look out for each other.
Oren Barzilay
President