NFFE Local 1563 Update

 

  May 2008

 

We have reached the spring season when we look for fires and a new start of the field work.  We had our first session of the legislative conference in March.  We took a short crew to Washington, D.C. to meet with elected representatives during this time.  One of the key issue for us was the 401 series and how OPM’s direction is causing havoc with in the fire community.  Here is a link to the FSC site that describes in detail how we are addressing the issue.  <Fire Issue-Click Here>  We encourage folks to take a look at what the Forest Service council is doing.

 

In addition we had discussion with the Agency heads concerning the use of privilege in safety investigations.  The military and medical fields such as Veteran Administration have privilege in safety investigations.  The military has it through case law and the VA has it by public law.  We are asking Congress to allow this agency to have a similar provision in the safety arena.  Keep in mind this is NOT immunity.  It is privilege only as far as the safety investigation goes.

 

We are still working on the competitive sourcing issue.  Although we were able to work with Congress for this fiscal year's funding it does not mean the issue can not reemerge.  We are asking Congress to make fundamental reform to the whole process.  We did get a GAO report that explains in detail the competitive sourcing program within the agency.  Click here to view the report.  This effort was a huge undertaking.  Thanks to the Interior Appropriations subcommittee in the House of Representatives and the Senate Interior Appropriations and the efforts the Forest Service Councils Legislative Committee, we were able to convince Congress this program was a huge waste of money.  

 

One other item I have been discussing with management is how to reduce some cost to the fire program.  I will outline it below and will now copyright it for the Local.  I offered management the free advice and they failed to take it last fall.  So now if they want to use it they can pay the Local a fee.

 

First, as a person moves up in the fire organization, we (the agency) need to reduce the fitness qualification.  The WCT was designed to measure the ability to produce line over a period of time.  In 99.9 % of the cases I have observed strike team leaders, division supervisors and others in the operations side of the house that are not producing line.  These line supervisor’s primary functions are to provide for safety, communications, tactics/strategy, and production on the line.  By reducing the arduous fitness level to a moderate fitness level, all the above is still accomplished without having to send these seasoned fire fighters through the medical standards program and the arduous fitness test.  Second, this would allow an incentive for people to move up in the fire organization.  As well as provide well seasoned and safe people for these positions.  We could adjust policies to allow the operations person to take the arduous level test if they so desired.  There is some push back from a whole range of people including fire personnel, but I believe we should at least consider that this is an option for increasing the number of qualified fire fighters. (c) 2008

 

Next Hill visit May 19

 

 

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Local 1563 and Local 913.