r/Firefighting • u/RustyShackles69 Big Rescue Guy • 4d ago

General Discussion New union contract is disappointing/dangerous

Im not going to give too much info since who knows who's reading this and can track it back to me. I saw info on the changes to our contract, and to say my jaw dropped is an understatement. I can't for the life of me understand how the city can think its okay to try and count chiefs toward maning and use a nearby jurisdiction's 2 man apparatus as emergency staffing.

I get it. We work alot of ot, but another officer in a pickup doesn't help us on a fire scene in the same way as a 3rd or 4th on an engine.

Well survive we are cowboy company and have made small staffs work so far but the city is gaining population not losing people.

Also, shame on the old men running the union prioritizing the dollar bills paid over obvious nfpa safety concerns. I guess the city will wait til people die and they get sued to make changes.

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u/GuyInNorthCarolina 1d ago

This reads as “if we don’t like our union contract we will force a law to make people pay for fire calls in retaliation”. You realize that right?

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u/jomar99 1d ago

This has nothing to do with the union contract. The intention is to reduce costs associated to large fires that require additional personnel or mutual aid, which creates a huge financial burden on the department because events like those aren’t budgeted for. Most insurance packages have these costs within the policy. It doesn’t cost the homeowner anything.

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u/GuyInNorthCarolina 1d ago

The thread is titled “new union contract is disappointing. This was your initial response.

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u/jomar99 1d ago

Yeah, instead of trying to work out some crazy deal with the union to get chiefs on the back of our trucks to reduce costs. A new cost recovery bylaw was created instead. I’m not sure what you’re missing here.