The Citys’ obligation to negotiate in good faith is underway. Albeit five months late. Our initial meeting was April 11th to set ground rules. April 26th was chosen as the date to exchange proposals. On April 19th, City negotiators called notifying Local 798 “we won’t be ready.” So what else is new!

On April 26th we received correspondence from the Administration changing some of the ground rules and dates previously agreed upon for negotiations at our first meeting. No request for discussions was forthcoming. The Administration arbitrarily made changes on their own. On April 27th, Local 798’s attorney requested the Administration set up a date to iron out ground rules. No correspondence has been received as of May 1st. Decision time, I guess I’ll cancel my August vacation.

SMOKE EATERS GAZETTE UPDATE:

I have chosen, until now, not to address the Smoke Eaters Gazette. I refuse to allow its’ creators any credibility. However, I can no longer allow the Smoke Eaters Gazette to continue its’ diatribe against selected members of Local 798. Give it up. Your allegations, assumptions, and selected innuendo have hurt enough people. Your rag serves no useful purpose. No Pulitzer is on the horizon for your whining, but the A/Hole of the Month Award would seem appropriate. It’s ironic that a prisoner of his own prejudices would value freedom of expression and free speech but not feel free enough to sign his own name.

EMS UPDATE:

April 26th Fire Commission meeting. Chief Shortall and Dr. Marshall Isaccs presented their new program for salvaging a failed merger. Don’t worry, Rich and Marshall haven’t changed. They don’t care what you think. Medics, H-1s’, 2532s’, union reps from both Local 798 & 790, firefighters, H-3 firefighter/paramedics, nurses, Doctors, citizens of San Francisco, and Josie Mooney, President of the San Francisco Labor Council, spoke in opposition of the new plan. Nineteen 1 + 1 ambulances and twenty-five ALS engine companies. None other than Chief McCallion himself uttered the quote of the night, when he said, and I quote, “ The plan will be successful if enough paramedics show up for work.” Wow! That’s nice support from a chief of administration. Chief Tabacco publicly supports the concept. Now if we can only get the Chief to support the CPAT for entry level firefighters. He keeps deferring to the Fire Commission for approval. Chief, you and the Exam Unit can make that decision on your own. Back to EMS, sorry for sidetracking, there’s just so much going on these days. We’re going to need your support. If Thursday the 26th was any indication it looks like we could put up a pretty good fight. The Fire Commission has promised Local 798 and others to meet with the Administration and the EMS Division at a roundtable discussion. We look forward to the meetings to present our opinion. The concept of the split system is to reduce the workload for paramedics. The way I see it: same number of ambulances, same number of dispatches, increased number of disgruntled employees.

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