The 2nd annual Fallen Firefighter golf tournament  will be held August 28, 2009  0900 Shotgun start @ Green Meadows Golf Course. Packages start at $75 and include greens fees, cart, lunch/dinner combination, refreshments and an after party. Everyone who attended last year had a great time. Hole sponsorship is also needed. For more details click on the link

A disturbing trend has emerged as many American cities have consolidated their dispatching and communications functions and invested in new technologies. Namely, the primary understanding of the role of communications in the fire service is being diminished and, in some cities, lost. Several key factors are involved: persons not knowledgeable about fire department needs making decisions about fire department communications systems; new technology that doesn’t put the customer (the fire department) first; and fire department leadership that does not stand up for the needs of the department, firefighters, and dispatchers

http://www.fireengineering.com/display_article/361523/25/none/none/Depar/Sometimes-Technology-Is-Not-the-Answer

  The MDA/Danny Miller Memorial Ride is being held on Saturday July 25^th. Danny was a Firefighter for Greenville Fire Dept. and had a passion for riding, which is how he lost his life on June 16^th, 2008. Please join us in honoring our dear friend by raising proceeds for MDA. Registration will be held at Greenville Fire Station 96 at 111 East Ave. Greenville, PA 16125 from 12:00-1:00 and all bikes will leave at 1:00pm to ride together to Presque Isle in Erie, PA and ending at The New England Tavern @ 160 Clinton St. Greenville, PA 16125 where dinner will be provided, Chinese Auction, and prizes given. Thank you for your support! Info~call 724-813-1528

The pay stubs now reflect accumulated sick time and vacation time, unfortunately, there is an error in some of these numbers. Both the City and Union are aware of this and are working to correct it. Please do not call payroll or HR with complaints. Thank you, Dave

The Commonwealth Court has ruled against the PLRB concerning the PLSDO (reverse DROP). The Court ruled that the City was correct in the ability to rescind the City Ordinances that provided our PLSDO. This is not the current PLSDO that was awarded to us by the arbitration panel. It is my understanding that the City is challenging this provision. Check back for updates.

                  An arbitrator has awarded the Scranton fire union a new contract through 2014 with significant pay raises and a mandated number of firefighters per engine company.
                The city plans to appeal the decision, though it had not received an official final copy as of Monday, solicitor Mary Theresa Paterson said.Read the whole story at: http://www.scrantontimes.com/articles/2008/11/25/news/sc_times_trib.20081125.a.pg3.tt25award_s1.2115378_top7.txt

On May 28th the City drug us to Pittsburgh for a hearing to forcibly remove our Electricians from our Bargaining Unit. After postponements requested by both sides, the closing briefs must be sumitted to the PLRB by October 24th.

The City was granted another postponement, the briefs now have to be submitted by November 21, 2008.

A mutual postponement was agreed to prior to 11/21/08, briefs are now due in December.

When City Council "rescinded" the PLSDO ordinances, we filed an Unfair Labor Practice suit with the PA Labor Relations Board, had a hearing before a hearing examiner and won.

The City appealed the hearing examiner's ruling to the PLRB and we had a second hearing before the 3 member panel and again won.

The City has appealed this decision to the Commonwealth and the hearing date has been set for October 14th.

April 1, 2009

This is not an April Fool's prank.

I want to warn everyone of you to be extremely careful. The County dispatchers haven't impressed me with their abilities and this causes me to worry that one of us may be killed because they don't have our backs. Pay attention, don't get in too deep and please don't get separated from your crew, if at all possible.

This may seem to be a redundant warning, but I deem it necessary.

If, God forbid, something tragic were to happen to you, the Chief will not support you, in fact, he will go out of his way to focus the blame on you or your Officer. He's done this repeatedly, to the point that we (the Board) know the song and dance by heart.

Dave

The City of Erie has once again lied to its firefighters.

We were assured that our employee contribution to our healthcare and our raise would appear in the same paycheck. This didn't happen. It seems the mayor, chief, and cronies have decided to deduct the healthcare but didn't bother to pay us as directed by the Arbitrator.

Maybe the mayor wants to bolster the mid year report (election year and all).

This, I'm sure will be produced in a timely fashion, not like the 2007 CAFR (audit), which wasn't presented until January 2009. There was an allegation by the Finance department that the Auditors did not want to produce the audit when it was ready as the Firefighters were arbitrating a contract. Right!

Fire Communications folks are being laid off with severence in lieu of 2 weeks notice, the lay offs are going through, but not the severence, again as promised.

Calls have gone unanswered.