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View President's Report for:
May 2010 December 2009 September 2009 June 2009 Special Report
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President’s Report General Issues May 2010 We have never been so busy but this is a good thing as we have never been so successful. We have become involved in almost every area of firefighting. From sitting on Provincial, Municipal and Federally appointed committees to Labour Management Committees and Politics, we now have a voice in the decision making process in regards to almost all areas of firefighting and emergency medical services. We recently sent out a report specific to our political efforts for the upcoming civic election. We hope that you will read that report carefully and consider helping us during the next election. 1. Labour Management General Our Labour Management Committee has been very active and it can generally be said that there is a true partnership between UFFW and Management. This relationship is approved of and supported by the Mayor and City Council. This is one reason why they have supported us and why our department has become a leader in Canada in providing Fire and Emergency Medical Services for our citizens. New Fire Stations We are working hard to create new fire stations that we can be proud of. City Council recently passed the 5-year Capital Budget and this included funding for six replacement stations and two new stations. We will be replacing Stations 11, 18, 12, 13, 19 and 15 and creating two new stations, one in Waverly West and one in the Sage Creek area. We still have a lot or work to do in deciding how the new stations will be staffed and where each replacement station will be located. Mentoring We are currently working with management to create a mentoring process to support our PCP’s in the field. We have spent long hours trying to create a system of support without negatively impacting the operations. Overtime As per the Collective Agreement, we are tasked with creating a system of overtime for three levels within the Winnipeg Fire Department. These are: 1. Officers 2. Fire Fighters – Non PCP 3. Fire Fighters – PCP’s Again, as per the Collective Agreement, the City has a duty to share with us the overtime usage date in order for us to monitor the system and ensure fairness in the overtime application for the Department. 2. WCB Issues It has only been seven years since the first presumptive Cancer Legislation in Canada was created in Manitoba. Since that time dozens of Winnipeg Fire Fighters have been covered for Occupational Diseases such as Heart Injury or Cancer. Sadly, many times the payouts have been to the families of our Brothers who have succumbed to their illnesses. We now have seven provinces and one territory in Canada that have Presumptive Cancer coverage for WCB. Every one of these provinces has copied the Manitoba Model almost word for word. The original legislation was for five cancers but more than a dozen cancers are now covered in Canada as well as heart injury within 24-hours of an emergency response. It has been an honour for me to travel to the European Community to give presentations to Fire Fighters, politicians and media to assist our European Brothers and Sisters to gain proper WCB coverage for occupational cancer. I believe we will see Sweden gaining such legislation this year and again Sweden will use Manitoba’s model of Legislative coverage. We are also assisting Australia, New Zealand and Israel in their work to have their Governments recognize the connection between cancer and firefighting. All Winnipeg Fire Fighters should be proud of what we have accomplished here. Our legislation has impacted hundreds of Canadian Fire Fighters who have been diagnosed with cancer and soon this will expand to Europe and other countries around the world. In saying all of this, we are not done yet. We must keep moving forward and we are seeing studies come forward to justify new cancers such as prostate, breast, skin and multiple myloma. We will now begin to lobby once again to expend the list of cancers that Fire Fighters are covered for under Presumptive Legislation. 3. Contract Negotiations We have just implemented our latest contract and all members should have received their wage increase. On the last pay period in December and the first pay period of January we will receive additional wage increases of 1% and 3.5% respectively. 4. Pension We are still working hard to ensure that our pension plan is as strong as possible. The latest financial recession has exposed certain issues in our pension plan and so we are working to ensure that we learn from the last two years and make our plan even stronger! 5. Alternate Shift Committee (24-Hours) As per Membership Direction, I have appointed an Alternate Shift Committee to study and report back to the membership about the issues surrounding the 24-Hour Shift. I will be sitting on this committee that will be chaired by Russ Morrow. We will bring the report back to the membership as soon as possible. In addition to all of this work your Executive will also be putting in a great deal of time leading up to the Civic Election that will be held this fall. As always, I thank my Executive for their support and hard work. We are lucky to have these guys! It is a great honour to be your President and we could not be as successful as we are without your support. On behalf of the Executive, thank you.
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The following report on Presumptive Legislation was written by Alex Forrest at the request of the Fire Fighters of Iceland. It is going to be used in the Icelandic Fire Fighters' Newsletter as well as other Fire Fighter Newsletters around the world.
Presumptive Legislation in Canada By Alex Forrest Canadian Trustee, International Association of Fire Fighters President, United Fire Fighters of Winnipeg · Please see attached CV of Alex Forrest One of the biggest developments in the last ten years in regards to Canadian firefighters is the acknowledgement that there is a connection between cancer and the profession of firefighting. Prior to 2002 not a single jurisdiction in Canada had any legislation that accepted the connection between occupational cancer and firefighting. Today in seven out of ten provinces and one territory we now have legislation that is called “Presumptive Legislation”. What is Presumptive Legislation? If a fire fighter works a certain number of years and is diagnosed with cancer then it is presumed that the cancer is as a result of his/her job. What this means is that the government will cover the fire fighter for lost wages while he/she fights the disease. If the fire fighter succumbs to the disease then his/her family will receive financial compensation. · Attached to this report is a copy of Manitoba’s Presumptive Legislation One example is brain cancer. If a fire fighter works for a minimum of ten years and is diagnosed with brain cancer it is presumed to be as a result of the job and is treated as an occupational injury or death. It is treated no differently than if when a fire fighter dies as a result of a building collapse during a fire. The Canadian ExperienceThis wild ride started in the Province of Manitoba in 2002 but prior to this there were jurisdictions in the U.S.A. that had some type of coverage for fire fighters who were diagnosed with cancer, but this coverage in many states was vague and the benefits were minimal. In 2002 the Province of Manitoba became the first jurisdiction in Canada to pass presumptive legislation to cover fire fighters with cancer. This legislation applies to both active and retired fire fighters. The original legislation covered five cancers: brain, bladder, kidney, non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma and leukemia. Once this legislation was passed the idea spread across the country like wild fire and today the majority of Canadian jurisdictions have Presumptive Legislation based on the original Manitoba Model. Recently Manitoba amended its legislation so that the following cancers are now covered: brain, bladder, kidney, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, leukemia, ureter, colon, rectal, lung, esophageal and testicular. Heart injuries within twenty-four hours of an emergency response are also covered. Politics, Science and PerseveranceWe achieved this groundbreaking legislation because of three things, politics, science and perseverance. First of all, the legislation is strong and was passed unanimously by all political parties in the various provinces. This is because the legislation was based on science. Firefighting may be the most studied profession on earth. The connection between firefighting and cancer is no longer debatable as study after study has demonstrated the connection. Fire Fighters have anywhere from twice to five times the cancer levels as the general population and also get cancer much earlier in life. It is a sad truth that this job that we love so much takes away both our quantity and our quality of life. The reason for this high level of cancer incidence is the ever-increasing use of plastics in our society. Every year dozens of new plastics are introduced and within the last ten years building construction has moved away from wood based construction to being glue and plastic based. PoliticsScience and being on the side of right is not sufficient to get laws passed. It is also necessary to get political as an organization and to get politicians in power to make the effort to learn about our profession and how dangerous it is. The International Association of Fire Fighters has become one of the most politically influential groups in Canada and we make no apologies for that. ConclusionEven when we obtain Presumptive Legislation our job is not done. We must keep fighting for all firefighters to be properly protected by laws that recognize the dangers of occupational disease. I am humbled by being involved in many of the battles to obtain proper Political Legislation in many provinces of Canada but we also need to assist other firefighters around the world. We have been assisting other countries such as Sweden and Australia and in order to make our legislation stronger. We need countries such as Sweden, Finland, New Zealand, Australia and Iceland to take up this battle. We hope that other countries will use the information that we have compiled to ensure that no fire fighter anywhere will die of occupational disease and not be properly compensated and recognized for their sacrifice in dying in the Line of Duty. On a final note, I just want to leave you with these last few statements: 1. Studies show that firefighter cancer rates will likely keep rising as we become more and more of a “plastic” society. 2. It is clear that even though we have improved our safety equipment, firefighting gear and breathing apparatus, it is not keeping up with the increased toxicity levels of fires. 3. The bottom line is that our protective gear may have increased our safety level by three to four times what it was ten years ago, but you must understand that the toxicity level of fires may have gone up by as much as ten times what it was ten years ago. 4. If you look at the rates of various cancers, it is the filters of the body that seem to be most susceptible to cancer. These are colon, lymphoma, bladder, kidney and blood. This is due to the fact that we are absorbing these chemicals into our body every time we fight a fire. Alex Forrest
Canadian Trustee, International Association of Fire Fighters President, United Fire Fighters of Winnipeg Alex Forrest obtained a Bachelor of Arts and then worked as a full time fire fighter while he pursued a Bachelor of Laws at the University of Manitoba. He was called to the Bar in 1996 but rather than going into private practice he became President of the United Fire Fighters of Winnipeg, an organization representing over fifteen hundred active and retired firefighters in the City of Winnipeg. Alex has more than twenty years of experience as a Fire Fighter with the Winnipeg Fire Department and has been President of the United Fire Fighters of Winnipeg, Local 867 of the International Association of Fire Fighters for more than twelve years. He is a First Responder and has completed courses in Hazardous Materials and High Angle Response. He has also completed the Officer’s Training Course of the Winnipeg Fire Department. Alex continues to be President of UFFW and he is also Canadian Trustee of the International Association of Fire Fighters, an organization that represents twenty-two thousand Canadian Fire Fighters. The I.A.F.F. represents three hundred thousand fire fighters across Canada and the U.S.A. Alex is Chair of the UFFW Political Action Committee and as such he has been very involved in lobbying to attain Presumptive Legislation for Fire Fighters across Canada. He has a passion to ensure that firefighters diagnosed with occupational disease receive proper compensation and recognition. Alex worked hard to make Manitoba the first Canadian province to receive Presumptive Legislation, and assisted in drafting that legislation, which was passed in 2002. Since that time he has lobbied governments and met with and advised Premiers, and Ministers not only to extend the “Manitoba Model” to other provinces but also to improve the coverage provided to Manitoba Fire Fighters. Seven Canadian Provinces now have Presumptive Legislation and Alex has been involved in this expansion. Alex has represented the IAFF as Policy Committee Member, EMS Representative for Ontario and Manitoba and Provincial District Service Representative for the Province of Manitoba. Alex Forrest is the Regional Director for Manitoba and Saskatchewan on the Canadian Fallen Fire Fighter Foundation, Chair of the Manitoba Fallen Fire Fighters Foundation and he has served on the Board of the Centre for Disease Control, Animal and Human Health, the Hazardous Materials Corporation and the CGSB / CSA Technical Committee on the Protection of First Responders from CBRN Events. He has served as the Joint Chair of the Winnipeg Fire Department Safety Committee and is the Media Spokesperson and Negotiations Chair for UFFW. Mr. Forrest has instructed seminars and has been a guest lecturer for many Fire Fighter organizations across both North America and Europe. He continues to assist Fire Fighter Locals and to educate government officials in many jurisdictions about the science that proves a connection between occupational diseases and the occupation of firefighting.
The Manitoba Legislation (Bill #25) Definitions 4(5.1) In this section, "full-time firefighter" means a full-time member of a fire fighting department; (« pompier ŕ temps plein ») "part-time firefighter" means a casual, volunteer or part-time member of a municipal fire brigade. (« pompier ŕ temps partiel ») Presumption re cancer and firefighters 4(5.2) If a worker who is or has been a full-time firefighter or part-time firefighter suffers an injury that is (a) a primary site brain cancer; (b) a primary site bladder cancer; (c) a primary site kidney cancer; (d) a primary non-Hodgkin's lymphoma; (e) a primary leukemia; (f) a primary site colorectal cancer; (g) a primary site ureter cancer; or (h) a primary site lung cancer; the injury must be presumed to be an occupational disease the dominant cause of which is the employment as a firefighter, unless the contrary is proven. Application of presumption re cancer 4(5.3) The presumption in subsection (5.2) applies to a worker (a) who has been employed as a full-time firefighter or part-time firefighter for a minimum period prescribed by the Lieutenant Governor in Council by regulation; and (b) who has been regularly exposed to the hazards of a fire scene, other than a forest-fire scene, throughout that period of employment.
Additional requirement re lung cancer 4(5.4) In addition to the requirements of subsection (5.3), the presumption for a primary site lung cancer applies only to a worker who has been a non-smoker immediately before the day of the accident for a minimum period of time prescribed by the Lieutenant Governor in Council by regulation. Effective date of presumption re cancer 4(5.5) The presumption in subsection (5.2) applies to accidents that happen to (a) full-time firefighters on or after January 1, 1992; or (b) part-time firefighters on or after the day this subsection comes into force. Presumption re heart injury to firefighters 4(5.6) If a worker who is a full-time firefighter or part-time firefighter suffers an injury to the heart within 24 hours after attendance at an emergency response, the injury must be presumed to be an accident arising out of and in the course of the employment, unless the contrary is proven.
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President’s Report May 7, 2010 Endorsing His Worship Sam Katz for Re-election as Mayor of Winnipeg
Well, its that time again; time to turn on our Political Machine to become involved in the Civic Election that will be held in the fall. We need your help. As we have always said, “We cannot stop being involved in politics because politics cannot stop being involved in firefighting.” Almost every aspect of our job is impacted by political decisions. We cannot rely on politicians to be left alone to do what they feel they need to do in regards to our Fire Department. Everything, from wages to staffing to our protective equipment and our ability to have firefighters properly covered under WCB, involves political decisions. We need to have politicians who understand how vital we are to every aspect of Public Safety. We need to have politicians who know how dangerous our job is. We need to have politicians who know why firefighting has to be a priority issue in this City. We need to have politicians who know why we deserve a fare and reasonable wage and benefit package, given the nature of our job. We need to have politicians who know that Fire Fighters have to be properly protected under WCB if we are killed or injured or are diagnosed with an occupational illness. We have compiled a list of some of what we have gained directly from being involved in politics. Without our Political Actions: 1. The sixty junior Fire Fighters on our job today would not be employed in our department 2. All Fire Paramedics could be riding on and driving Ambulances 3. We would not have the wage scales that we have 4. Fire Fighters diagnosed with occupational disease would die without proper WCB coverage. Their families would then be left with minimal financial support 5. We would not have the high quality of protective clothing, SCBA’s and Fire Apparatus 6. Female Fire Fighters who become pregnant would be taken off shift and put in an accommodation position that would mean a loss of wages and benefits for that Fire Fighter 7. We would not have the leadership we have today in the Winnipeg Fire Department 8. We would not have the tradition of the Winnipeg Fire Department recognized as our main identifier 9. We would not be building six replacement Fire Halls and two new Fire Halls 10. Even if you disagree with our position on Political Action you cannot deny our incredible success in our Department. We will be endorsing several Councillors and Mayor Katz this fall and we need your help. Anyone can help as many times all we need is Fire Fighters to attend a rally. We also need people who wish to spend a couple of hours assisting a candidate. Since we negotiated our ground-breaking wage increase last February we have been approached by dozens of members who have said thank you to the Executive for their hard work. We thank all members for their sentiments but you can better thank us by helping with our political efforts! Your help will enable us to continue the great successes we have had in this union! If you are interested in helping us please contact any Executive and we will put you on a list of members who we can call on for help. On a final note, politics is an extremely time-consuming and exhausting endeavor and I would like to take this opportunity to thank my Executive and also Derek Balcaen, Robert Campbell, Julian DeGrave, Jim Henderson and Greg O’Halloran who have all put many hours into our political efforts in the last year:
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December 2009 NegotiationsWe have been in negotiation meetings or in preparation for the meetings daily for almost a month and a half. I wish we could tell you that we are making progress, but it is a tough road as the city is pleading financial distress. The one positive aspect is that both sides are listening to each other’s issues and attempting to solve the issues through a win-win style of negotiating. At the end of the day we will do our best to attain a negotiated settlement but if that is not possible then we will proceed to arbitration in a respectful manner. At that point we will put all of our resources and efforts into that process. We are attempting to arrive at a negotiated settlement before our contract expires on December 26th of this year. I would like to thank the Executive and the Branch Stewards for working hard on our preparations over the last six months. Banquet and BallThis year our Banquet and Ball was a tremendous success. We had a record number of politicians attending including MLAs, MPs City Councillors, Ministers and the Premier of the Province. Best of all we raised a large amount of money for the Never Alone Foundation for their work in the fight against cancer. Thanks go out to Chad Swayze and his team of Brian Cutts, Julian DeGrave, Robert Campbell and Derek Balcaen. A big thanks also goes out to past chair, Jim Hemphill and his wife Diane who took our banquet to new heights in the last two years. They set the stage for our incredible success this year. We always remember that in the Union we stand on the shoulders of those who came before us. WCB and Line of Duty DeathsOnce again we have had a line of duty death funeral, this time for my good friend and Brother, Jim McDonald, who died of occupational cancer. More than 250 off duty firefighters were in attendance, however we were hoping for 500 off-duty firefighters to pay their respects to our Fallen Brother. It does not matter if you have been on the job for only one day and never knew Jim, as your attendance is to pay tribute to our Fallen Brother and to show support to his family. Any one of us can be stricken with occupational cancer or killed at a fire scene and it is important that all off duty firefighters attend funerals in uniform. This is because of the occupation we have and because we support each other, especially the families of fallen brothers and sisters. Solidarity is what our profession stands for! Merry Christmas and a Happy New YearWe have once again had a tremendous year that we should be thankful for. Our job has made many positive advances and we have had tremendous success in everything from WCB improvements to wages and benefits. On behalf of my Executive, my wife Heather and my three boys, Will, Tyler and Ryan, I wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
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September 2009 We have all worked hard with our Public Relations over the last decade in order to create a positive image, but it only takes one incident to be a major setback. We are an extremely successful organization and the public consistently gives us one of the highest approval ratings of any profession. But this success does create enemies. I don’t know if it is brought on by jealousy or for some other reason, but we all need to realize that this does happen and our actions must reflect the scrutiny that we are constantly under. Part of being a Fire Fighter is being subjected to this scrutiny but I do believe we are up to the challenge. We must be above reproach but we must also be compassionate. People make mistakes! Fire Fighters are human and although negative incidents are rare, they do happen. What is not rare is our daily commitment to the citizens of Winnipeg, even if it means we put our own lives on the line in order to keep the people of this city safe. I believe the great majority of the people of Winnipeg know this. On a personal note, I am extremely proud to be a Fire Fighter and it is an absolute honour to be your President. There is no other profession in the world that I would rather be part of. One tough aspect of the job of your Union Executive is that when an incident like the one at Station Four occurs it becomes all time-consuming and takes us away from our families and our other work. On another note, we are currently working on our latest contract proposals and we will be exchanging proposals with the City in October. Once again negotiations for this contract will be challenging but we are working hard to ensure that we receive a fair and reasonable collective agreement. As always, I would like to thank the Executive for all of the hard work they have done over the summer preparing for contract negotiations. Brothers and Sisters….be good! Alex Forrest, President |
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June 2009 I have just finished my Officers Training Course and I want to take the time to acknowledge the great work that our Training Division is doing training our members on the latest firefighting strategies such as incident command, reading smoke and building construction. We agree with our Administration that training has to be a priority for our Department and the reason for this is simple, it is about safety. Training allows us to do this dangerous job in a way that will minimize injuries and deaths on the fire ground. Every year there are multiple line-of-duty deaths as a result of incidents on the fire ground and I do not need to tell you what it means to a Local to lose members on the fire ground. Our training division is smaller than in Fire Departments in many cities that are comparable in size to Winnipeg and we are working hard with the Administration to ensure that our members in the Academy have the proper resources to do their jobs. The issue of the 24-hour shift has been brought to the Executive and has been discussed at General Membership meetings. A survey has been sent out to the membership and the purpose of this survey is to see if the membership has an interest in this issue. There are many different types of 24-hour shifts and it is extremely complicated and would affect many areas of the contract. Even if there is significant interest to move forward on this issue it will take a long time to thoroughly study it. Nothing will move forward unless the membership has a full understanding of this issue and the decision to proceed or not will be decided by the membership. Your executive has always taken the position that we represent the wants and needs of our members and the membership has to have significant interest in proceeding before we even begin the process. Delivery of the turn out gear should be completed by July of this year. We will now have the best gear that is available anywhere in the world and we deserve nothing less. Winnipeg has made the short list of potential host cities for the 2015 World Police Fire Games. Other Cities on the short list are Toronto and Fairfax, Virginia (Washington DC). Police Chief Keith McCaskill and I are the co-chairs of Winnipeg’s Bid Committee. At the end of July we will be traveling to Vancouver with Premier Gary Doer and Mayor Sam Katz to make our final presentation to the WPFG Committee and we should know the results by the first week of August. I would like to thank Chad Swayze for all the work he has done on this. He is the driving force behind our bid. We have begun preparations for this year’s Contract Negotiations. We exchange proposals on October 1st and we will begin negotiations almost immediately after that. I would like to thank the Executive for working over the summer to ensure that we are ready for the negotiations. The economy is extremely fragile and this presents challenges for us, but we have a very experienced and motivated Negotiations Committee and I believe we are ready to meet the challenges. If you have any issues please bring them to any Executive. Have a great summer and again, I would like to thank you, the membership, for the support you give the Executive and I would like to thank my Executive for their commitment and hard work. We are very lucky to have the team that we have in Local 867.
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Special President’s Report on Current IssuesMarch 2009 Wage IncreaseWe are pleased to announce that City Council has ratified the wage settlement package that we negotiated and we are now working with the City to ensure that both the wage increase and back pay is processed as soon as possible. We will send out a notice shortly to advise the membership as to when we anticipate this will be completed. Turn Out GearThe new turn out gear has now been approved by City Council. New, state-of-the-art turn out gear will be provided to every suppression member. This will also include new, leather turn out boots. We hope that you will have your new set of turn out gear and boots by the summer. Provincial BudgetWe attended the reading of the Provincial Budget on March 25th and we are pleased to announce that the Provincial Government will be increasing funding to the Fire Department for EMS services by four million dollars ($4,000,000.00. City BudgetCity Council has now passed its 2009 Operating Budget, which includes funding for the Fire Department. This will provide for the wage increases included in our new settlement as well as provisions for overtime funding to maintain the full complement of the Fire Department. Building of New Fire HallsWe have now moved forward to the next stage in the process to have four new fire halls built and we are hopeful that they will be completed this year. The fire halls to be built will be a new fire hall in South East Winnipeg and new halls to replace Stations 12, 11 and 18. Our success on these and other issues is due to the large number of Fire Fighters who have come out to assist in our Political Action Campaigns. We hope that in the future even more of our members will become involved in these activities. I would like to thank everyone who assisted with our Political Action work and I would also like to thank the Executive who work hard every day for the membership.
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