FORWARD TOGETHER UNION STRONG

Firefighters’ history in organized labor is long and has seen many victories. That solidarity is more important than ever.

From construction workers to supermarket clerks to teachers to firefighters, working people are the backbone of any healthy society.

Only one institution gives everyday workers the power to come together to make their lives better on the job. It’s called a union.

Whether it’s negotiating salary and benefits, protecting rights on the job or fighting for better working conditions, a strong union is often the only way working people can have a true voice on the job.

“Unions exist for the purpose of protecting everyday front line working people,” said CPF President Brian Rice. “No other institution in society puts the interests of workers at the heart of its mission.”

Firefighters have a long and proud tradition of union solidarity.

In California, firefighters were the first public workers to win the right to organize.

Firefighter unions helped lead the way to collective bargaining rights, secure pensions and health care, job safety and workers’ comp protection, and survivor benefits for our fallen.

Every day, it is the union that stands up for individuals against unfair or abusive management practices.

And in a political system rigged to favor wealthy and privileged elites, only unions give everyday working people the power to fight back.

“When I was first on the job in Modesto, fire chiefs could pretty much hire and fire at will, and just about everyone needed a second job to make ends meet,” said CPF President Emeritus Daniel A. Terry. “It was only because we got organized and got active that things changed, and even then, it took a long time.”

Terry, who led California Professional Firefighters for more than three decades, and his successors fought in Sacramento for groundbreaking workplace protections, bargaining rights, pension benefits, professional training and safety standards and a commitment to professionalism. At the local level, union leadership has engaged in the year-in, year-out hand-to-hand combat of bargaining and political action needed to protect our state’s firefighters.

“Right now, California firefighters are the best paid, best trained, best equipped and best protected in the country,” said Rice. “That doesn’t happen because we wear a shiny badge and ride a fire engine — it happens because a union was there fighting for it.”

How important have strong firefighter unions been in California? One way to measure is by looking to other states where organized labor is under attack.

For decades, firefighters and other public workers in most states have labored under laws that kept them from having any direct input on their pay, health care, retirement security, or even basic working conditions on the job. Many of these restrictions on organized labor are the product of so-called “right to work” laws, which also seek to put a muzzle on the rights of working people to participate in the political process.

“In North Carolina, it’s against the law for us to negotiate pay or benefits or even participate in the grievance process,” said Dave Coker, president of Professional Fire Fighters of Greensboro. “The things you take for granted in California, we’re fighting for every day in our state.”

The challenges firefighters face in mobilizing for their rights are part of a larger, highly-organized attack on workers’ ability to join together to fight for their rights. In the private sector, corporations large and small spend upwards of a quarter-billion dollars every year on anti-union organizing. In public-sector unions, the recent Janus decision by the U.S. Supreme Court has threatened the ability to effectively organize in every state.

To see the potential results of these attacks, one only need to look at the recent past. During the last decade, firefighters in the city of San Diego saw their hard-earned retirement pension eliminated with the active support and involvement of the city’s mayor and leadership. Only last year — after nearly a decade of legal struggle and political action — was the action overturned.

“If you think that this can’t happen in your city, or won’t happen because you’re firefighters, you are kidding yourself,” said San Diego Firefighters Local 145 President Jesse Conner.

For Connor’s local — and indeed all firefighter locals — the key to protecting what’s been earned and progressing is simple: stay strong and stay together.

“As firefighters, we understand the critical importance of teamwork,” said CPF President Rice. “As we look at the forces that are lined up against us, it’s more important than ever for us to stay united as firefighters and a strong, unified union.”

RESTORING PENSIONS IN SAN DIEGO

No local union has had to work harder for longer to win a fight for its members than San Diego Firefighters Local 145. In 2012, a deceptive ballot initiative ended pensions for firefighters. Local 145 spent the better part of a decade fighting to get the measure overturned, and they won.

This Q-and-A with Local 145 President Jesse Conner is excerpted from CPF’s podcast, CPF Fire Wire

How did the fight over Proposition B start and how did it impact members?

In 2011, our then-mayor Jerry Sanders and a couple of council members who had personal agendas at the time started drafting a pension initiative that ended pensions for firefighters and all other city employees, with the exception of our police officers. It also eliminated death and disability benefits. Instead of meeting and conferring with labor unions in the city, they did an end-around and started marketing it as a “voter initiative”. It passed, and as of 2021, upwards of 40 percent of our members had no defined-benefit pension.

So how did Local 145 respond?

We started with an unfair labor practices action with PERB (Public Employees Relations Board), and they ruled in our favor. That decision was appealed by the city and the court of appeals overturned PERB’s decision. We then appealed that decision, but had to go all the way back to the Superior Court after we got a ruling from (then-Attorney General Xavier Becerra) that allowed us to appeal to strike down a voter-approved ballot measure.

So what ultimately happened?

Ultimately, in 2019, the California Supreme Court invalidated Proposition B. Pension reform, no matter how we view it, was not illegal, but the way the city of San Diego implemented it was absolutely illegal. Those aren’t my words — those are the words of the Supreme Court.

So what happens next?

We were able to get death and disability protection back through the city council. Ultimately, our goal is to get every one of those members back into a pension system, but it’s going to take time.

How important has political action been in this process?

It’s critical. During this process, we got involved with every candidate, and if they were not good for public safety, we backed their opponents. We were able to elect a labor-friendly city council, a mayor who respects labor and a city attorney who respects labor. Even before the decision, we were able to get death and disability back.

So what message would you give members and leaders?

Stay engaged and don’t think this can’t happen to you. Everything is political, and you need those relationships. You don’t get everything you want, but if you don’t get involved, you get zero.

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