From the President

Supervisory unit members…

 I would like to set the date for the supervisory unit member meeting in regards to the 2009-2012  contract negotiations.

I would like to meet on:

Tuesday

October 14, 2008

1100hrs

C Shift

Location: Union Hall

571 Haverty Ct

Suite N

Rockledge  32955

Lunch will be provided. Let me know if you plan to attend so I can get an accurate count for food.

Bring your ideas and input for the new contract negotiation. To date Myself and Jeff Money are on the negotiations team, I am awaiting confirmation on the third member.

Michael Zocchi

President, BCPFF Local 2969

 My Letter to General President Schaitberger over the Consolidation issue…

     BREVARD COUNTY PROFESSIONAL 

     FIREFIGHTERS LOCAL 2969

    571 Haverty Court   Suite N   Rockledge, Florida  32955

    _________________________________________

September 10, 2007

Harold A. Schaitberger

General President, IAFF

1750 New York Ave, NW

Washington, DC

20006-5395

Dear President Schaitberger,

I received your letter today advising of your intent to grant arbitration procedures in reference to the work dispute issue and Article XIX violations as the local cities in our area have charged. Before you grant such a ruling, I ask you to take into consideration the facts in the case that have not been relayed to you.

To begin with, I have to apologize to you that a matter that is local in nature has made it to your level. This situation is one that has existed between our locals for many years. Our local has grown tired of letting the city departments constantly attack our service and threaten our union jobs, and we finally are speaking out against their aggression. Please let me explain our situation to you.

In the letters (which all were drafted by the local FPF 9^th DVP Jim Tolley as is evident in their consistency) we were first charged with aggressively going after the City of Cocoa’s fire service. This action was under then local 2969 President Danny Hensler. The facts are this; the then city of Cocoa Mayor Parish approached our County government and asked to have a price for fire protection from our department. Our local union did not get involved with their efforts nor did we speak in favor of the move at a single public forum. In order to keep the peace we remained neutral at the time. Our local drafted bylaws (as you should have a copy on file and approved of) to protect their firefighters should they consolidate with us. These bylaws guaranteed them seniority, pay, rank and everything we could think of to ease the transition if it occurred. Keep in mind these bylaws are within our local and have no actual legitimate weight in the governmental side of the deal. We simply wanted everyone treated fairly.

During this time Cocoa fire began a very public door to door campaign in which they attacked our service, told complete lies about our members, and basically smeared the good name of our employees and union members across the city. Our local still did nothing publicly about this attack, and we remained quiet and neutral.

The issue eventually died and our local never once spoke in favor of the consolidation in a single public event.

Moving forward a few years…

Palm Bay fire rescue (local 2446) mounted an aggressive campaign to take the EMS transport service from us in the South end of the County. Brevard County Fire Rescue holds the COPCN and has countywide transport then and now. By making this aggressive move, the City of Palm Bay would then eliminate close to 100 BCPFF Local 2969 Union jobs in the process. This action by local 2446 we protested to the FPF and our DVP Jim Tolley. He asked them to stop and we let the issue go.

Following this issue, Jim Tolley and the Palm Bay local then inserted into the FPF bylaws the following:

This policy was a clear attempt by DVP Tolley to assist the city of Palm Bay in their attempts to eliminate our union jobs. This policy was done when we were not at convention without our knowledge.

In 2007 we attempted to pass a late file resolution to have the policy eliminate the word ‘Brevard’, so as not to cause the loss of union jobs, but the city of Palm Bay and DVP Tolley thwarted our attempts at every move. They made it a city/county fight.

Following this event, we called President Carver (FPF) and DVP Tolley to a meeting with our eboard. We explained how DVP Tolley was not representing the largest union in his district properly by supporting such a bill, and we would be forced to leave the FPF if this was not removed. This issue simply compounded the ill feelings between us and our FPF DVP. Following our meeting President Carver did put a resolution forward which passed to remove our name, but Jim Tolley still did not support this move to us.

Moving to this year, we were faced (County and city alike) with horrible budget cuts across the board. I sat and watched city after city talk of cutting back fire protection, eliminating positions, and denying raises that were deserved. I put out emails to my membership talking of the positive aspects of consolidation. In every letter to my membership I spoke of one thing…Saving union jobs. I stated it was of no matter what color shirt we wore, what our trucks said on the side, or what we were called…All that mattered was saving every union job in our county from the effects of the amendment 1 budget cuts.

The question then comes to this; did I talk to the other locals about this issue? No I did not. This was internal emails between me and my membership. NEVER once did I make a public statement or release on the issue. I felt strongly that it was the only way we would survive in coming years, and still do in fact. But I never spoke of it publicly. Jim Tolley took my private communication between me and my membership and made them known to all. His motivations I will not try to explain.

Things are said between a leader and their membership at times that never are intended for public scrutiny or knowledge. Sometimes we have to say what people are thinking to let them know we understand their side of issues at hand. Jim should know this and should have spoke to me about it. To date, he has not.

Jim Tolley sent me a protest letter about my statements. In his letter, which he wrote as the FPF 9^th DVP he advised me to stop such talk to avoid violation of IAFF Article 19. He also met with Titusville and Cocoa Beach fire departments in his quest against us…Neither of which were even FPF members as we were. Jim Tolley never once met with me, our eboard, or our membership to even discuss the issue with us as he did with non-members like Titusville and Cocoa Beach.

Since the day Jim Tolley sent me the request to stop talking about the consolidation issue, not a SINGLE letter or word from me has emerged on the issue. I spoke to DVP Larry Osborne on the issue multiple times, and I told him of the events that had transcribed to that point. I told him we would remain silent, as we have.

Still, several weeks after we promised DVP Osborne we would never speak of the consolidation issue again, Jim Tolley met with the cities and formulated the letters or protest you were given. We even spoke with you at the IAFF convention in Las Vegas on the issue, and you spoke as if you understood our situation in our dealings with Mr. Tolley. We asked Jim Tolley to meet with us along with President Carver at convention, but they avoided all talks with us. We have since been mandated by our membership to terminate our relationship with the FPF, much to my dismay.

Here is what I ask of you, Mr. President…

I ask you notify the complainant cities that we have not made a single public attempt ever at the consolidation issue.

I ask you stop Mr. Tolley from his constant attacks on us and our transport service. In his aggression towards taking transport for a fellow city he will cause the loss of many union jobs here.

I ask you do not proceed with arbitration and cost anyone funds that are so difficult to come by as it is already.

I ask you take the fact that we instantly halted our communication on the consolidation issue with other union departments and our discussions with DVP Osborne on the issue as proof that no issue exists.

I ask you look at the way our union has been treated by the local cities and understand the level of frustration my members are feeling. We can’t sit by and let them take our union jobs away from us.

Our local has been treated poorly, and we must blame ourselves in some way for that. Too long have we sat idle while others have attempted to take away our jobs and service one piece at a time. As unions we should be standing shoulder to shoulder, only in greater numbers can we take on the very governmental bodies that strive to diminish our service. We are beginning to stand up for ourselves, and others may not like that. We speak of unity, they speak of elimination.

Mr. President, you still have my word that our local will not make issue against any fellow union department for a case of consolidation without that locals consent. We still, to this point in time, have never made a public attempt at any such action…Our communications were internal only and never made public. Surely you do not expect what is said at every dinner table, union meeting or private discussion to be subject to IAFF scrutiny?

With this said a case for arbitration seems pointless. We have always agreed that attempts to violate Article 19 were actions that we would not pursue. Our word has been given, and we ask it be accepted by you.

I thank you for your time, consideration, and attention to this matter. We also thank you for your hard work and dedication to our service. After only 20 months of being a local President myself, I find it amazing you can keep your sanity in a position such as yours!

Fraternally,

COPY

Michael Zocchi

President, BCPFF Local 2969

(407) 414-7814

Sunday, September 27, 2008

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