FD828

Dude, wake up. They are taking away rights that these unions fought for. It is anti-American what those states have done. It is not the unions that have put the municipalities in the spot they are in. The republicans are pitting the working class against each other. (It's not fair that the unions have this and the rest of the workers don't. Vote republican and we will get rid of the big bad unions) Do you really think that the non-union citizens will see any difference in their taxes? You are kidding yourself if you think the residents will get a tax break if they strip the unions of their collective bargaining rights. The unions are not to blame. Nor are they unwilling to make concessions. But don't sit there and say that we have to cut this and that and watch those cutting get raises and if you think it hasn't happened you are insane. They are destroying what so many have worked for. It is not right.
Your comment of making sure unions are kept in line... what exactly do you mean? The unions have to negotiate every single thing in their contracts with... yup the municipality! So don't sit there and say it is the unions fault, the contracts have to be agreed to by both sides. The unions have not strong armed anyone. They have fairly negotiated their contracts. So you are saying well done to Oklahoma because you think this will be what is best for the union members themselves but not the union itself? So basically the cities can now say you will get this for pay and this for vacation and this for medical and if you don't like it you can go work elsewhere. So how is this better for the union member???

Dude, wake up. They are taking away rights that these unions fought for. It is anti-American what those states have done. It is not the unions that have put the municipalities in the spot they are in. The republicans are pitting the working class against each other. (It's not fair that the unions have this and the rest of the workers don't. Vote republican and we will get rid of the big bad unions) Do you really think that the non-union citizens will see any difference in their taxes? You are kidding yourself if you think the residents will get a tax break if they strip the unions of their collective bargaining rights. The unions are not to blame. Nor are they unwilling to make concessions. But don't sit there and say that we have to cut this and that and watch those cutting get raises and if you think it hasn't happened you are insane. They are destroying what so many have worked for. It is not right.
Your comment of making sure unions are kept in line... what exactly do you mean? The unions have to negotiate every single thing in their contracts with... yup the municipality! So don't sit there and say it is the unions fault, the contracts have to be agreed to by both sides. The unions have not strong armed anyone. They have fairly negotiated their contracts. So you are saying well done to Oklahoma because you think this will be what is best for the union members themselves but not the union itself? So basically the cities can now say you will get this for pay and this for vacation and this for medical and if you don't like it you can go work elsewhere. So how is this better for the union member???

Can you give examples of how my union has not "fairly negotiated"?
Can you explain why my employer takes money out of every one of my paychecks under the title: "medical"?
While I do not have to pay into my "pension", I am paid less than when I was in the private sector and had to pay into my retirement. When I was debating switching jobs the issue was less pay, but more benefits. A hard choice when your single, no children and in your 20's, but I understood that as I got older it would be worth it.
How did we get this pension system? Was it the greedy unions that developed it? We had a city pension system until the 1960s, when the Mayors in NY State determined it would be cheaper for the taxpayers to have one pension system (and they would look good reducing cost), instead of one in every municipality and they convinced the state legislature to develop it.
Interesting way to look at it, I understand it very differently. All FF's are at similar risks of being hurt/killed at an incident, but after figuring out what a firefighter salary should be, the municipalities understand that if they lower the starting salary by up to 50% with a 5 year build up to "top" pay knowing there are still enough people willing to take the job and struggle to make ends meet for those 1st few years. It’s not non-merit, it is what they should have made in the 1st place, but the big bad unions dont have enough power to fight this reduction.
My union contract allows all members to "share" in a college funding account. By contract the city must fund $20,000 per year (not per member) to cover the tuition of all union members. At its height that was 181 members sharing $20,000. If 20 of those union members went to college, each was able to get $1,000 toward their annual college education. Now to get this benefit, the union had to give up something and in the last few years more than $10,000 of the fund each year does not get used and is returned to the City's general fund. Over the last 25 years I think about a dozen members have participated and 3 or 4 have gotten degrees.
And the tax payers benefit from all of this.
We do, we do, we do and while I did benefit from the education, it taught me how to bring over $2.5 million back into my municipality and reducing the cost of property insurance by more than a million annually for the last 14 years. Over the last 25 years $450,000 has been made available to 175 employees, but only about 1/2 has been used. and the return on the investment has been over $16 million.
You still have yet to show anyone how "they sold us out"?
I have given you the history, to bad you missed it in your research. Its true, you are ignorant of all the facts and you make a lot of assumptions, that are not true.
Then how come, for every gimme, we had to vote on giving something up? Or worst it was taken from us by an arbitrator.

After giving it some thought, I probably reacted to the letter to the editor from Mr. Maonis rather knee-jerkedly. I have worked on negotiations committees and assisted in negotiating 2 contracts for my Local so I take any attack on the benefits we have very harshly. Like you said, the benefits we enjoy today were obtained by members who served many generations ago. We are in the fight of our lives to keep the benefits we have and we don't need some jackass telling the public that we are assaulting the system and getting carte blanche benefits. It sickens me.
I have no ill feelings against volunteers. Just some of the systems they may have in place to promote their own. Mr. Maonis' attack on our benefits is out of line. I know that they are all involved in a quarrel in Stamford and its none of my business, but this garbage spewing big mouth needs to knock it off and go back to his job and let us do ours.
And...for the record, I do hope that he sees my comments here.

He probadly should have studied alot harder in school and be able to become a Career Firefighter.
But lets think about this. Any pay or benefits that ANY Fire Dept has been given was given with the full knowledge city officials at the time. It was a give and take game. Each step of the way was a battle and it took years to get anything that was given to them. It wasn't just out of the Goodness of some politicians heart. It was negotiated fair and square.
When I went on the fire dept in another city in Connecticut, people thought I was CRAZY. I started working for one third of what the average factory worker was making. The benefits were not as good as the rest of my working class friends of people. People tried to talk me out of the job because of the very low wages, and terrible benefits. While I worked my share of the holidays, most people enjoyed EVERY HOLIDAY. At the time, I loved the job and about the only thing I had more than those factory workers was job security.
Nothing has been handed to any IAFF Firefighters no matter where they come from. Stamford or other. Now as the tables have seemed to turn, Firefighters appear to be "Letching Off the System".
After reading that letter, its no wonder there are serious problems between career and volunteer firefighters. I was a volunteer firefighter in Fairfield, Ct for several years before becoming a Career Firefighter. I would NEVER consider insulting those guys. I sure wanted to be a part of them, BUT I never let jealousy take over. I had respect for them. And by the way, all my Volunteer buddies from Fairfield got on a Career Fire Dept. Most have now retired.

The application is just a formality. The Pavia administration already gave this candidate the job.

Before you submit a letter of this intent to any board, or any formal letter, make sure you have someone proofread your work. Makes you seem very uneducated when you're trying to convey a point, and all that people can stare at are the multiple grammatical/spelling errors.
Would I have agreed with what he was saying, absolutely not regardless of his grammatical mistakes... they may work only 7 days a month, however, they are working 24 hour shifts. 24x7 = 168 hrs/mo x 12mo = 2016 hrs/yr. Take a normal work week of 40 hrs/wk x 52 wks/yr = 2080 "working week day hours" in a year. or a difference in 2.6 work days per normal year. Add in a few company holidays and it appears that the normal buisness man actually works less then the firefighter, and I'm sure he gets his holiday, sick and vacation time as well on top of this...
I'm sick and tired of people attempting to skew data to make it appear what it is not. Present the facts, not your personal agenda.

In my humble opinion, this right here is why EMS will always be a job not a career like the FD/PD.

or move a town that requires you pay a subscription fee for fire service, just don't pay it and they will let your house burn down!

The other day, the snowy commute proved horrendous. At the rollover between Peekskill Hollow and Bryant Pond Roads, so many Good Samaritans intervened and helped a hurt, scared lady who skidded off the road in her minivan and came to a stop on the vehicle's side against a tree.
Thank you to the off-duty EMT I saw running into the woods toward her vehicle. Thanks to the guy trained as a first-responder who also was a life-long Boy Scout who just wanted to help if he could. Thanks especially to the several off-duty NYSTroopers who stopped, provided invaluable scene safety (with loaned flares- ahem) and helped to speed up the BLS response. And thanks, George the medic, for getting there to relieve me and allow me to get to work in the local ER (looking and feeling much like a wet, half-drowned rat).
Evereytime I start to think that people in general just suck and don't care about anyone but themselves, Good Samaritans like the ones I met the other day prove me wrong and restore my faith in mankind.
Thanks, all of you, for that.

Let it continue and create more land mass....that's more property to tax!

Sssshhh...it really is EFD's Rescue 5 making a comeback. At the last minute they're going to switch out the door decals. But at the apparatus show, who's going to bother looking at a new Rescue if it says Eastchester on the doors?
Here's how the conversation would go..
FF1 (name is Chester): "Woo wee...that sure is a pretty Rescue Vinny..."
FF2 (name is Vinny): "Chester, Eastchester..Where the hell is that?"
FF1: "It's up in Westchester."
FF2: "Run that by me one more time Chester..."
FF1: "It's only a few miles south of Port Chester.."
FF2: "And that's in Westchester Chester?"
FF1: "Yes. Port Chester and Eastchester are in Westchester."
FF2: "Where is the beer concession Chester?"
FF1: "THIRD BASE!"

We all must maintain the ability to take a step back and laugh, especially at ourselves or a parody of ourselves. Humor can solve a lot of problems in this world....if only people would lighten up, and laugh a little more. Life's too short.....and I think it's a scientific fact that people who laugh more live longer....

From what you say, maybe you did get shocked a few times and didn't realize it!! Are you insane? I understand that there are risks in EMS, but taking UNNECESSARY risks is just plain stupidity. I also believe that you are mistaken about the results of the CPR machines. (I will look for concrete data) Not to mention it makes the stopping CPR to carry down stairs or just move the patient a thing of the past. The machine performs compressions better then ANY EMT/Medic, and the best part is it doesn't get tired. Each and every compression is the correct depth and at the correct rate.

Then why are not speaking or yelling out against this ridiculous plan that has come out of the mayors office? It is not integrating anything but the "volunteer" departments! All you say is this is the hand we were dealt blaa blaa blaa. All interested parties should be banning together against this plan.... unless it is exactly what you and the rest actually want to happen......

From what you say, maybe you did get shocked a few times and didn't realize it!! Are you insane? I understand that there are risks in EMS, but taking UNNECESSARY risks is just plain stupidity. I also believe that you are mistaken about the results of the CPR machines. (I will look for concrete data) Not to mention it makes the stopping CPR to carry down stairs or just move the patient a thing of the past. The machine performs compressions better then ANY EMT/Medic, and the best part is it doesn't get tired. Each and every compression is the correct depth and at the correct rate.

I agree that the paid and volunteer firefighters can work together, but you said it above. Officers that meet the SAME standards. Have ANY of the voluteers handed over the training records that were requested eons ago? And what are those standards? What are the standards of a firefighter or an officer? Are the career FF's and volunteer FF's really trained to the same level? I don't know. Perhaps there should be a minimum city wide list of mandatory training that all FF's have to have before they go "on the line". Then there should also be mandatory training for FF's before they are qualified to become officers including an amount of time served.
I know that you have seen the men in action on calls. For the most part everyone works well together. There is 1 command at a scene and all officers are in charge of their company. I can't see the issue here. The voluteer LT's are not trying to give orders to the career LT or Captains and visa versa. So in my opinion the real problem is the people above everyone else. The volunteer chiefs want to be in charge in their districts, the career chiefs are going to be on the scene to watch over their own and it pisses off the volunteer chiefs. But again what is the training level and qualifications of the volunteer chiefs??? A lot of TRUST must be earned on both sides for any of this to work. And right now it is not there.

Not to mention the position it puts the firefighters in. We all know they have absolutely nothing to do with this hair brain idea, but they will sure be the ones taking all the heat from the public. Like they don't have enough to deal with already!

I wonder where the mayor/Larobina came up with the statement that if the volunteer companies were to disban the SFRD would have to hire 117 new firefighters which would increase the budget by 48%?? When the Asst. Chief of the SFRD gave him a ZERO cost plan to cover the WHOLE city!!! How is it that the new SVFD would only need 58 new firefighters but the SFRD would need 117??? I guess they don't remember that SFRD already is covering with Engines 7, 8, and 9! More miss-information...great job mr. Mayor or should we say Mike Larobina... who is really running city hall these days?

This is a letter to the editor well written by a police officer in New Jersey. Long but really worth reading.
http://uslawman.websitetoolbox.com/printthread?id=4974192

This is a letter to the editor well written by a police officer in New Jersey. Long but really worth reading.
http://uslawman.websitetoolbox.com/printthread?id=4974192

This is a quote from the advocate
"Whitbread said he was concerned that this plan would relegate volunteers to a secondary role at working fires because career firefighters could get to emergencies more quickly,"
Isn't this what the whole thing is about? Getting to the emergency (all emergency calls) quickly (with fully staffed crew)? Isn't public safety the main goal here? Apparently what's in the best interest for the residents of North Stamford is not the main concern of the X-Chief of TOR. How can you really say that you don't like a plan that will get emergency crews to a fire quicker then what your current crews can do just because they are CFF's?! I hope the public can see where their safety ranks on the priority list of this so called umbrella plan.

This is a quote from the advocate
"Whitbread said he was concerned that this plan would relegate volunteers to a secondary role at working fires because career firefighters could get to emergencies more quickly,"
Isn't this what the whole thing is about? Getting to the emergency (all emergency calls) quickly (with fully staffed crew)? Isn't public safety the main goal here? Apparently what's in the best interest for the residents of North Stamford is not the main concern of the X-Chief of TOR. How can you really say that you don't like a plan that will get emergency crews to a fire quicker then what your current crews can do just because they are CFF's?! I hope the public can see where their safety ranks on the priority list of this so called umbrella plan.