PRESIDENT’S PERSPECTIVE | BRIAN K. RICE
Your Priorities
Are On the Line
As this message is being written, thousands of our brothers and sisters are putting their bodies, hearts and souls into fighting yet another record-breaking epidemic of wildfire in California. It is the skill, professionalism and heart of our frontline career firefighters that is making
the difference — day in and day out, you’re defending California at its time of need.
In the last few years, some private entities have sought to encroach on that professionalism. Whether it is private fire forces in the insurance industry to for-profit “firefighters for hire” protecting the wealthy, we have seen for-profit fire personnel seeking to push their way onto California’s fire lines.
These privateers are almost always undertrained, without the requisite preparation that every California firefighter (professional or volunteer) must receive. This alone makes their potential presence in the mutual aid system a risk to your health and safety as firefighters. Beyond this basic threat, the interlopers bring with them the allure of lower pay, inferior protections and the mirage of “cost saving.”
CPF has had this issue on the radar for the last several years. In 2018, CPF advocated, and then-Gov. Jerry Brown signed, AB 2380, restricting the actions and access of private fire companies and imposing sanctions for operating outside of incident command.
Even with these restrictions, these operators have continued to go rogue, sneaking behind the fire lines and roadblocks to serve their elite clientele. Indeed, they appear to have become even more brazen. During the 2020 Glass Fire, one private crew was caught behind fire lines and had to be detained, putting our members’ safety at risk.
Now, citing California’s ongoing fire risk, the for-profit companies behind these private fire teams are seeking CalOES recognition as part of California’s mass mutual aid system.
Your job is too important to be left in the hands of those who seek to profit from California’s catastrophic fire risk to edge their way in through the back door. As long as I am president, CPF will fight tooth and nail to keep the “bottom-line brigade” out of California’s mass mutual aid system.
In addition to cracking down on private fire protection, CPF is also in a pitched battle to protect your hard-won workers’ compensation presumptions from the unconscionable and destructive tactics of employers and third-party administrators.
Through the decades, CPF has won groundbreaking presumption laws designed to provide for our members stricken with job-related cancer, heart disease, biological and hazmat toxins and, most recently, post-traumatic stress injury (PTSI).
Since then, local government employers, insurers and third-party administrators have adopted a “deny, delay, demoralize” approach. In dozens, if not hundreds of cases, employers or their lackeys have automatically denied legitimate presumptive claims. They will then drag out the process of medical review and adjudication of the claim, sapping the member’s finances and will.
Our members, who are injured in service of the public, are carrying the physical and emotional costs of unreasonable denials, and they are being asked to spend their time fighting their illness and the system.
For the past year, CPF has been working to right these wrongs, pushing Senate Bill 335, to reduce the amount of time insurers can string out claims in presumptive cases, and impose real penalties on them if their delays are proven improper (as they almost always are).
The insurance industry has been fighting this bill with all its might. I’m sorry to say that, despite overwhelming support among most legislators, a tiny but powerful minority gave insurers what they wanted — a reprieve for this year. CPF will not be deterred. We are building coalitions to support and ensure that these few, pro-employer voices cannot hold back the legislation in 2022.
This brings me to one final point. The long-term success firefighters have had through CPF, from presumptions to retirement security to restrictions on privateers, has been a product of majorities of pro-firefighter legislators and electing governors that stand with us on the issues critical to your life and livelihood.
When it comes to your job, benefits, health, safety and professional well-being, it matters who is elected … now more than ever, with so much on the line. This is why CPF took the position to oppose the recall of Gov. Newsom — a strong ally who has stood by firefighters even when it was hard.
As president of CPF, I can’t tell you how to vote on any issue. But what I do ask is that you carefully consider the impact your vote can have on your job. The job you love. The job that puts food on your table and protects your family.