January 13, 2010

 

Crawfordsville Professional Firefighters

Local 4143 Newsletter

 

 

                Welcome all brothers of the Local 4143, this is going to be a work in progress but, we are attempting to get a newsletter out to our members monthly to keep all abreast with all of our Union matters and achievements as time goes by.

 

            Obviously most everyone is now caught up to date with the SAFER grant and are well aware of the “opposition” that was apparent at the council meeting on Monday night. As it would be predicted the brothers of our Local are upset with the tactics to which that opposition was used. However, alls well that ends well the council voted UNANIMOUS to allow us to pursue the acquisition of 8 additional men to our department! This is exciting times for us.

 

            We have heard men have some reservations to the additional men in relation to the lack of annual raises we are not getting. After speaking with District VP Tony Murray on that matter and a few others he informed me that fighting the battles you can win are important. Right now around the country firefighters are losing jobs and not getting any additional moneys to budgets nor in their pockets ,we as an executive board are concerned about that issue amongst all the other needs that this department has. Essentially we are given lemons so we are going to improvise and make lemonade, there is no local government money for raises, however federal dollars are being given to increase safety in the fire departments. Safety has to be one of our concerns among other  things, NIOSH states that the largest factor in fire related deaths (LODD) is lack of manpower, you know as well as anybody we push our bodies to 100% exertion and we stay there way to long, with inadequate rehab times if any at all.  As an executive board our goals are to work closely with administration and the mayor/council, further work towards better wages/benefits, and to create a better work environment with increased safety.

 

 We also have heard many men concerned here recently on the developments of the “Garcia man” obviously these developments have just been brought to the table in a short amount of time with the changes to the Safer grant criteria, the executive board will attempt to answer as many questions that we can to keep the Local informed, however I urge you to speak with Chief you all know he has an open door and will be willing to speak to you and help you understand his plans for the future.

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After talking with the Chief Small and we all have heard him say it, his main goal is to ensure every man on this department returns home to their families, and as a member of the Local 4143 I hope we all strive for that purpose first and foremost!

 

            In other business, our contract is now back from Indianapolis and is now with our city attorney Dave Peebles. It is his desire that this contract is signed as soon as possible, Peebles stated he the council will review it once more. After that our Local along with PFFUI President Tom Hanify and  5th District VP Tony Murray will review any changes made to said contract and we will make our final changes and sign that thing!!! After that we will have to opportunity to collectively bargain all details associated with our profession which will be another huge accomplishment for our Local.

 

            The GIS study for our new stations is still with the IAFF , it is being held back to see if we are going to get additional manpower as that will change our response standards, apparatus assignments etc. We thank you brothers for your continued support, thank you to all who voice their opinions and concerns. Also a big thank you to the brothers who were able to attend the council meeting this Monday evening that showing was paramount to how important our staffing issues are. Great job brothers in all of your hard work we look forward to a great year!

 

Fraternally,

 

Local 4143 Executive Board