Pocatello L-187

The new Pocatello Fire Chief has made it through his first year. After the unusual move by the Local to support hiring a Chief from outside of the Department, relationships with management have improved. Chief Mike Irwin has made progress in several areas including;

•  Establishing a labor management committee to address issues within the Department.
•  Writing specifications and putting out for bid a new quint fire truck.
•  Put together a Paramedic training course and placed 6 members in the program.
•  The Chief has worked with the city’s financial officer to better plan for expansion of the Fire Department.

Although the new Chief has not given the Local everything we have asked for, he has at least listened to our requests and included us in planning discussions. This new attitude has improved department relations with the city council and county commissioners.

Computerized proximity dispatch and electronic data collection has been problematic for the Pocatello Firefighters. The desire by some of the staff officers to know where each member is and what they are doing at all times has been difficult to implement with the limited funding provided for the department. Each truck has been fit with a mobile tracking computer but, when a joint staff and union committee came up with a recommendation for software to complete the system, the funds were denied.

PAC contributions were stalled due to the Idaho legislator’s ban on voluntary payroll deductions for political action committees. Although the change has had an affect on the funds raised in the past year, the members have stepped up and substantially increased the contribution rate for next year after the new IAFF contribution system was implemented.

Pocatello has gone back to a Battalion Chief system with a Chief, two Assistant Chiefs and three Battalion Chiefs (one for each shift). Although the reviews are mixed, some things have improved over the Division Chief system we were operating under. The new Battalion Chiefs are included within the union.

Pocatello Mayor Roger Chase was defeated in the last year’s election by a relatively new comer to politics. Most people agree that this was the result of a very public debate about ordinances dealing with Animal Control. The new Mayor has stated many times he is for smaller government and lower taxes. The Union and the Fire Chief have tried to keep communications open and are trying to educate Mayor Blad on issues affecting the fire department.

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Twin Falls L-1556

The department has hired 3 new fire fighters, as the department promoted 3 fire fighters to Drivers to cover our ARFF station at the Twin Falls Regional Airport.  This makes our suppression manpower at 36 members.  We will be signing up the new members into Local 1556 this month.
 
Local 1556 and City Administration met for negotiations.  The city was trying to put a bi-weekly pay schedule into place.  Several members of Local 1556 expressed that this pay schedule would impact them negatively, so we brought no items to the table, to keep the city from initiating the bi-weekly pay.  All other city employees were put on the bi-weekly and have expressed their negative concerns.
 
Local 1556 will be scheduling its MDA Fill the Boot for the last part of September.

 

The department has hired 3 new fire fighters, as the department promoted 3 fire fighters to Drivers to cover our ARFF station at the Twin Falls Regional Airport.  This makes our suppression manpower at 36 members.  We will be signing up the new members into Local 1556 this month.

 

Local 1556 and City Administration met for negotiations.  The city was trying to put a bi-weekly pay schedule into place.  Several members of Local 1556 expressed that this pay schedule would impact them negatively, so we brought no items to the table, to keep the city from initiating the bi-weekly pay.  All other city employees were put on the bi-weekly and have expressed their negative concerns.

 

Local 1556 will be scheduling its MDA Fill the Boot for the last part of September.

 

We just completed some work on our Collective Bargaining Agreement with the City of Twin Falls.  We will be going  before our City Council on the 29th of March so they can give their blessing to the document.  After that meeting we will sign the CBA.  Most of the items were not discussed.  However we worked on some language reference on manning of apparatus.
 
We have a very good relationship with the administration of the city (City Manager and the Personnel Director).  We also have a good working relationship with our Chief Ron Clark.
 
We were not given a pay increase in 2009, however we did not lose any personnel.  As a side line, the city did not lose any personnel from any of the department, except retirements.
 
Our economy is good here in the Magic Valley and that helps with good working relationships.
 
Not much more.  Be Safe, and have a great day.
 
Randy R. Lammers
President, Twin Falls Fire Fighters Assn.
Local 1556
 

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Idaho Falls L- 1565

L- 1565 pipes and drummers performed at this springs PFFI Convention Feb 27 as they presented the colors and played their pipes exceptionally well to bring the meeting into full swing.

Idaho Falls Firefighters Local 1565 is doing its best to survive in this rough economy.  We haven't faced any layoffs or loss of pay and benefits, but it's hard to fight for much in negotiations.  Last year we signed a 1 year extension of our current contract.  We felt lucky to hold onto all of our wages and benefits when so many others around the nation weren't so lucky.

We have a new Rescue Truck and ARFF truck scheduled to arrive this year.  We currently have 90 shift firefighters, 3 fire inspectors, 5 staff officers and Chief Ellis.

Our pipes and drums band is doing great and headed to several national events this year including, Lewisville Texas, and the National Fallen Firefighter Memorial in Colorado Springs.

We are nearing completion of restoring our 1930 American LaFrance Hook and Ladder truck.  You can see pictures in our photo gallery on www.iaff1565.org.  Stay Safe!
 
Lance Johnson
 

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Burley L3308
Local 3308 has a signed contract as of TONIGHT!! :-) This is our first contract and we kept the benefits we already enjoyed with a few new ones. Some of the new ones include a 2 hour minimum callback instead of 1 hour. We now have a working out of class pay (WOOC), which before if you stepped up to Captain, you had to work 120 hours before you received the pay.  Now it will be the 1st hour. Also all employee performance evaluations will be done in September instead of our anniversary date. We got to keep our great HOLIDAY PAY - ours is a little different from most locals. Our insurance benefits remained the same and we did not get a raise which was no surprise to us. We will be going back to negotiations in May as we only have a 1 year contract. Our local is working on our PAC fund and we have nominated our PAC chairman.

Justin Jensen

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Madison/Rexburg L-4113

L-4113 have established a health and wellness program in their department. Though it loosely follows the IAFF’s, it was designed by one of L-4113 members.
 

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Chubbuck L-4155

Although the elections did not go exactly as they would have liked they do have a new mayor who should be easier to work with, with negotiations coming up next year this should really help out the boys at L-4155.

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Fort Hall L-4334
L-4334 is slowly trying to make some progress.  As you all know we have a unique situation working on the indian reservation.  At this time we do not have a contract and are way behind what we should be as a fire department.  We are working on membership and getting people in positions to assist in all capacities.  We are striving to help the tribes see the value in PERSI and hoping to get all of our guys physicals this year.  Also working on getting the tribes to recognize our local as a union. 

Rusty Lish
 

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Blackfoot L-4454

L-4454 President Ben Hirschi says that they are still learning the ins and outs of being a new IAFF and PFFI local.