Next Fire/Rescue Contract Negotiation Scheduled
Posted by PBCTAB on July 12, 2011 · 2 Comments
At the initial meeting between County Fire/Rescue and the IAFF on the 2011 contract, the county proposed a 22% reduction in starting salary among other changes. (See Genesis of a Collective Bargaining Agreement) The union response was deferred to the subsequent meeting which has now been scheduled for July 19.
NOTICE OF PUBLIC MEETING
PALM BEACH COUNTY FIRE RESCUE
Contract Negotiations
Please be advised that a Contract Negotiations meeting between Palm Beach County Fire Rescue and the IAFF Professional Firefighters/Paramedics of Palm Beach County will be taking place on:
July 19, 2011
9:00 a.m.
This meeting will take place at the Palm Beach County Fire Rescue, Room 101/102, 405 Pike Road, West Palm Beach, Florida 33411
(NOTE: This location has changed as of July 12 – it was to be held at the Trauma Hawk hanger on Southern Boulevard)
Fire/rescue needs a complete over haul starting with the out dated “Kelly days” and unsustainable retirement plans. These services should be look at from an outsourcing view, much like an private company would do to reduce their cost. . If you can outsource prison guards, trash pick up and security guards, then why not look at an RFP for fire service ? Benchmark the PBC fire with other counties and states and see where they rank in cost. increases in fire/rescue charges are still a form of taxes. Its time to peel back the cover that has been over the union contract and look at the real nubmers and their processes and ask why?
Firefighters put their lives on the line every day to save others. When your placing a value on a firefighter ask yourself:
Would you put 70 lbs of equipment on your back, run into a burining building and endure 700 degree heat for 30 – 40 mins looking for someone who is traped in that building???
Would you dive into a dark murky canal at 3 am not knowing if here are alligators, snakes etc. to look for someone who just fell in???
Would you run into a house to help a drug addict that is violent and wants to hurt themselves, then help tackle them to the ground, have to start an iv while they are combative just so you can give them medication to calm them down??
Would you run into someones backyard, dive into their pool and pull their lifeless child from the bottom of the pool, then use every drug and ounce of your knowledge to help save that child so they can see another day??
Would you walk down the alley of a dark street in Rivera Beack at 3am to help save a victim of a shooting from a drug deal gone bad, only to get shot at yourself from the shooter cause hes pissed off your trying to save a life???
Would you craw under a train to pull out the amputated leg of a person who was just run over by that train only to take that leg, pack it in ice and bring it with the patient to the hospital???
Would you go into the bathroom of a total stranger only to find them on the floor covered in their own feces, help clean them up and carry them in your arms to the hospital???
We do this every day… shouldn’t we get paid for it???
Firefighters on average live only 5 years after retirement and die of job related cancer, stress, heart attacks and strokes from job stress and enviromental exposure… shouldn’t we get paid for it???
To all the TAB Memebers, ask yourself, when your trapped in an overturned car that is on fire in the middle of the Florida Turnpike at 3 am, and a firefighter, without regard for his own life, crawls into that car to pull you out… are we going to be worth it then??????