Union Membership

[fyreplug]

Seeing the thread on the misuse if the IAFF decal brought to mind the subject of membership.

I have served in the fire service for over 35 years. Only a short time as a career fire fighter. The organizations that I have worked for before and since belonged to different unions or as now legislation says I and my peers must belong to a certain union.

I respect the IAFF greatly and the work they do for their members. They have become one of the most proactive and member educational based unions.

It would be nice to see the IAFF amend their constitution to allow associate membership with dues so that some of the educational material could be accessed. My thinking would be that the associate membership would never be a voting one nor could they attend convention but they could access some of the services and information. An example - Cancer does not differeniate - career vs volunteer vs paid on call.

Another thought - perhaps the IAFF could develop a sticker that they could sell, with monies going to MDm that identify the holder/user of the sticker as an IAFF supporter. With the word supporter being centered such that it could not be cut out or altered to make it look like the person is an IAFF member.

We should celebrate and support our memberships in any way we can but not misuse them for personal gain.

fyreplug

[smoke286]

An example - Cancer does not differeniate - career vs volunteer vs paid on call.

fyreplug

A noble thought, unfortunately the epidemiological evidence from most of the accepted studies, do not easily support your suggestion. Key to this is how scientific studies measure risk, which effects how studies predict latency periods presumption and the ever present "criteria for assessing causation"

The easiest thing really is for others to wait till career fire fighters sucessfully get presumptive cancer legislation implemented and then approach the politician demanding "me too"

[DFC]

A noble thought, unfortunately the epidemiological evidence from most of the accepted studies, do not easily support your suggestion. Key to this is how scientific studies measure risk, which effects how studies predict latency periods presumption and the ever present "criteria for assessing causation"

The easiest thing really is for others to wait till career fire fighters sucessfully get presumptive cancer legislation implemented and then approach the politician demanding "me too"


What the F..... did this guy just say??????????? " epidemiological " I think I had that in my soup last night....

[irsqyu]

What the F..... did this guy just say??????????? " epidemiological " I think I had that in my soup last night....

If you do not understand something perhaps you should look it up before throwing out the sarcastic remarks!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epidemiological


this guy "this guy" as you say is one of the well versed regulars on these forums!

[DFC]

If you do not understand something perhaps you should look it up before throwing out the sarcastic remarks!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epidemiological


"this guy" as you say is one of the well versed regulars on these forums!

My point was not to be sarcastic but rather that most FF I know couldn't spell epidemiological let alone try and use it in any sentence without getting laughed at......
A sence of humour not in your vocab this day either?

[smoke286]

What the F..... did this guy just say??????????? " epidemiological " I think I had that in my soup last night....

If you ever hope to make any progress in the presumptive cancer front then I suggest you learn what those terms mean.

In laymans language it is much hard to prove a causal link between fire fighting and cancer in volunteers than it is with career fire fighters.

[smoke286]

My point was not to be sarcastic but rather that most FF I know couldn't spell epidemiological let alone try and use it in any sentence without getting laughed at......
A sence of humour not in your vocab this day either?

I am familiar with those terms because I and others have spent the last two and a half years preparing and presenting a study on this topic to Workers Comp, the Provincial Gov. and local municipalities.

And there isn't really much I find funny regarding work related cancer.

[irsqyu]

And there isn't really much I find funny regarding work related cancer.

That was my point also!!

[bestcoast]

And there isn't really much I find funny regarding work related cancer.

I agree...:thumpdown: .............BC..............................

[DFC]

I read the orignal thead again and seen that you were comenting about the cancer among FF.
Your use of the english language is comendable but I don't know if your answer really adresses the threads original idea about VFF being brought into a unionised fire service enviroment.

Keep up the good work

[smoke286]

but I don't know if your answer really adresses the threads original idea about VFF being brought into a unionised fire service enviroment.


Quite true it did not. And the topic is an interesting one. I'm sure any number of unions (several are already agressively organizing in Ontario) would be interested in, as long as the volunteers were willing to pay their dues.

My union, the IAFF would not of course because it states in its constitution that volunteer fire fighting departments are "rival organiztions"

My particular point to the original poster remains that on the topic of cancer in fire fighters the case for the inclusion of volunteers is not so strait forward and may indeed cloud the issue or cause the initiative to be defeated, however politicians seem quite willing, after the intitial arguments have been raised to add volunteers to existing legislation, wether the evidence supports this or not.

[robukff]

I read with some interest in the postings on this site. I have a question? Do you have to be a member of the union to join the Fire service in Canada. Is it specifically a Firefighters union? Over here in the Uk we have the choice to be in the union or not. What happens when you are in dissagreemnet with the union and they call for a stopage in work or a work to rule? Do you have a choice to work or do you have to tow the union line.Can you mediate and sort out your own shift patterns or are there only set shift patterns across various states. We have a lot of varying shift patterns here. I work a 3 night, thurs, fri and sun nights 15 hours each. There is also 15/9 shift patterns, 4 on 4 off and there are 14/10 shift patterns for the search and rescue teams.anyway there are to many too mention. Hope someone will be able to reply to my questions soon.
Cheer
Rob

[smoke286]

robukff, let me see if I can answer all your questions.
1- In Canada we have "closed shops" which means in a unionized enviroment you must be (and remain to be) a member in good standing of the union to retain your employment throughout your career unless you move into management. You do not have a choice.

2- Most (but not all) career firefighters in North America are members of the IAFF. There are more than fire fighters in the IAFF, my own local also includes 911 dispatchers and technicians

3- Many of us in this country (but again not all) do not have the right to strike, instead we have binding arbitration

4- Each local negotiates their work hours in their collective agreement. There are a wide variety of shift schedules. My Dept. works 24/72

Hope this answers all your questions