Informational Video on potential Redmond/Bellevue/Kirkland RFA

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Below is a link to an informational session about a potential Redmond/Bellevue/Kirkland RFA.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qwU_Cs5SVrqo6Ex0Vd4KWdn6Y2ydyBts/view?usp=sharing

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Union Leave coverage need

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Brothers and Sisters-

As many of you know, the E board uses Union Leave provided by the employer to attend conferences and other Labor events.  The standard process is to request this from the Fire Chief well in advance.  This coming Saturday the 24th I am scheduled to leave for Boston for the IAFF Annual convention.  Unfortunately, with just 8 days notice, the Fire Chief rescinded his previous approval of Union Leave.  There is little to nothing we can do about this change so we are left to scramble.

With the approval of the Executive board, I want to offer anyone that can cover one of my work days compensation in the form of straight time pay from the Union.  This is normal practice in other Locals and at the State Council level but would be new for us.  The dates we need covered are August 24, 25, 30 and 31.  We need to get these covered ASAP so please reach out to Evan if you are able to help and we will sort out how much you will get.  If we get more offers than we need we will use seniority to award the shifts and will maintain a list should any future needs come up.    If you want to help but would rather do 12 hours, we will see what others offers come in and plan accordingly. I want to be clear our plan is to fix Union Leave issues through the CBA process but since that is ongoing we need to be creative. Thank you so much in advance for your consideration.

 

Evan

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Statement on OT issues

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Local 2545 Members,

You may have noticed a recent change in the way that overtime is being paged out. Past practice and our current overtime policy indicate that “the position of the employee that caused the staffing shortage shall be used to determine the appropriate classification to call back.” In other words, a firefighter that calls in sick and causes the shift to fall below minimum staffing creates a firefighter overtime. Also from our current policy:
  1. Cause. The position “causing” staffing levels to drop below minimums is the most recent position vacated by use of any leave type.
 
Recently, shift BCs have made a decision to operate outside the guidelines of current policy and instead move an acting officer to cover the firefighter OT, thereby allowing them to offer the OT to the officer’s group first. This created more overtime opportunities for officers and BCs, but at the expense of those same opportunities that were previously available to firefighters.  We want to be clear that protecting work is a fundamental value of the IAFF, WSCFF and Local 2545 and we want to ensure that our policies, procedures and practices reflect that value while simultaneously ensuring that all of our members are treated equitably and have fair access to work.
 
Unfortunately, the change in procedure does not follow current policy or past practice and reduces access to overtime wages and acting opportunities for many of our members. Local 2545 does not endorse or support this change in its current implementation and believes that further conversation between the membership, Local leadership, the BC group and admin are necessary to reach a consensus on any changes to the overtime policy. In the mean time, the BC group has agreed to return to past practice until such a time as we can meet to discuss their concerns. We are in the process of scheduling those conversations and will communicate with you all as we move through this process.  
 
Your Local 2545 E-board
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Estate Planning presentation

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You’ll find a link to a video recording of the estate planning presentation from the recent union meeting.

Estate_Planning.mp4

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2024 Union Summer Retreat!

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Click the link below to view the flyer with all the information we have for next years Union Summer Retreat.  This is an awesome way for us all to spend time together off duty and with our families!

 

2024 Union Retreat

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UDS Body Scan sign ups

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Good Afternoon Brothers and Sisters-

Our apologies for the delay in getting this scheduling tool out for Ultrasounds.  The Local worked out an agreement with the employer to allow for these scans to be scheduled both on and off duty.  If you click the link below you will open a PDF with an embedded link to schedule your ultrasound for the week of October 23-27.  In order to simplify this for BC’s, if you are planning to participate on duty, please attempt to coordinate schedules with your crew if more than one of you plan to participate.  Reminder that this sign up is on a first come, first serve basis and spouses and partners are welcome.  You will receive a bill/receipt directly from UDS which you will use if you are going to seek FSA/HSA reimbursement.  Please reach out to Doug or Evan with questions.

 

UDS Ultrasound scheduler

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UDS Body scan info

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Local 2545 Members,

Please click the link below to read about our upcoming UDS body scans.  On Monday, September 25th we will be sending out a sign up link to all members.  Sign ups will be on a first come, first serve basis.  Also, please remember that these scans are open to spouses.  We strongly encourage everyone to participate in this important early detection screening.  Please reach out to Doug Tomczak if you have questions.

 

UDS Letter

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2021/2022 Profit and Loss Detail

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Local 2545,

 

See the below document for details about profit and loss for the 2021/2022 fiscal year. If you have questions, please reach out to Local 2545 Treasurer Doug Tomczak.

2021 & 2022 P&L Detail – Kirkland Firefighters Union L2545

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Stronger Families and Kirkland Fire

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Tim Sears is in a director position with the Stronger Families organization and has proposed to the Local a new program be started with Kirkland Fire. The gist of the program would be targeted at helping spouses better understand the firefighting career. Stronger Families would provide the curriculum and training but would need 10-12 volunteers from the membership to get trained in the curriculum as well as a spouse to lead the group of spouses. The below documents from Stronger Families give more information about the proposals:
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Vacation Access FAQ

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Vacation Access FAQ

Why is the system changing?

-As our department grows, existing rules for the amount of personnel allowed off every day has begun limiting our ability to use our earned time off. Labor and management identified the need to address that issue as we increase minimum staffing and total number of line firefighters over the next few years.

What is the 2018 PERC ruling?

– In 2018, additional personnel were hired as minimum staffing was increased to staff Station 25 with four firefighters. When fire admin was unwilling to open more vacation spots, a grievance was filed which ultimately resulted in a PERC ruling stating the city had to maintain our existing access to time off.

What does 115% access mean?

– The city is legally obligated to provide access to 100% of the time off benefits employees receive. When investigating the level of access we had during the 2018 PERC ruling, it was determined that our members had access to 114.7% of their earned time off. For example, in a given year, if the department earned 1000 hours of time off, the city had been providing 1147 hours worth of vacation slots.

How will I know if there can be 5 or 6 people off on vacation?

– The annual vacation bid matrix will highlight the dates in which six people can be off versus five. Telestaff will also be updated every year to reflect those dates, so if you try to add time off, it will tell you whether you’re over the appropriate amount of people allowed off.

In the past, if we only had 2 people off on Kelly, we could have up to 7
more people off on vacation. Aren’t we losing those spots?

– Those spots were accounted for when we ran the numbers from our
2018 PERC ruling. No spots are lost, just distributed in a different pattern.
Splitting the vacation/Kelly day total time off grants a more even
distribution of available time off throughout the shifts. For example, if B
shift had additional personnel for a given year, they would not only have
more people bidding vacation slots, but they would also have less access
to available slots because more Kelly day slots were filled.

How do we calculate the number of extra days off every year?

– January 1st, fire admin will calculate the total amount of time off earned
by our line firefighters. They will then multiply that many hours by 115%
and divide by the total days in the year. This year that number came out to
5.14. This means 5 slots available every day, and the .14 is distributed as
an additional 6th person off in a predetermined pattern throughout the
year.

Why isn’t all the extra vacation availability allocated in the summer?
Wouldn’t that be better?

– While that would be better, the Local understands the city’s desire for
spreading the days out equally per quarter and agreed to an even
distribution throughout the year. They will be distributed as follows: Q1 –
Working back from March 31, Q2 – Working back from June 30, Q3 –
Working forward from July 1st, Q4 – Working forward from Oct 1st. This covers a large amount of kids summer break and hunting season.

Are the rules for vacation picks changing?

– No, other than the split between vacation/Kelly days, rules for picking
vacation will remain the same.

What if we’re above minimums on a day I want off?

– Vacation tentative will come into play more during the summer if we
have minimal people on Kelly days. Throughout this year, we don’t see
that as a factor because each set is almost maxed out with people on
Kelly days. During that time, the union and admin will be working on
ways to improve the vacation tentative selection process.

Why are Kelly Days and Vacation days separate now?

– The union felt that by splitting those days, we would not only simplify
the vacation selection process, but also distribute vacation access more
evenly throughout the shifts.

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