SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Cal Fire’s largest union has says that after months of asking for higher wages, morale is at its “absolute lowest.”
The union represents nearly 6,000 firefighters, and said it is seeing firefighters leave the department due to low wages.
An average Cal Fire employee works a 72-hour shift, reported the publication. The average municipal firefighter works a 56-hour shift. On average, a Cal Fire firefighter makes between $28,000 and $73,000. Even though Cal Fire employees work 19 more hours a week, the Sacramento Bee reported that in a 2014 study, they made 33 percent less than local firefighters.
Cal Fire Local 2881, as a result, has launched an ad campaign to push forward the issue of wages. “We will no longer stay silent and we will go public with our concerns,” Mike Lopez, union president, posted on the group’s Facebook page.
“The high level of frustration and disappointment, which hasn’t been resolved, is driving them to go public and explain who we are,” Terry McHale, the union’s public policy director told the Sacramento Bee.
The campaign will include television, radio and print advertisements that aim to “explain and reintroduce folks to the work, efforts and sacrifices” of state firefighters McHale said.
“There is an expectation that they will risk their lives, they are going to be exposed to all of these elements. And the pay is not commensurate to the job they are performing,” Lopez told CBS Local.
“Despite good faith efforts on our part, our bargaining team has not been presented with an acceptable proposals from administration,” Lopez said.
The union’s current contract expires in 2017.