Is a Volunteer Firefighter’s Union the needed? A group of firefighters on the VolunteerFD.org website think so. They may call the organization “The National Volunteer Firefighter’s Association” but let’s call a spade a spade, it’s a union that they are forming.
Association president Peter Cogliano launched the organization, when he started the first local chapter, in Ansonia, Connecticut. The organization was born out of the need to bring the ‘rank and file’ 785,000 volunteer firefighters together. The stated goals of the organization include:
· Promote the safety of volunteer firefighters nationwide
· Endorse and support nationally developed standards for volunteer fire departments
· Establish a national Length of Service Award Program (LOSAP)
· Help departments that are financially challenged
· Support political ideals that help volunteer fire departments nationwide
· Share ideas and concepts between locals
· Promote volunteer firefighters as ‘unpaid professionals’ and demonstrate their capabilities
· Ensure proper treatment and support of volunteers through workers comp and insurance programs.
While the NVFA may call themselves an ‘association’, their stated goals seem to follow closely along with other national unions, with the exception that their members do not get paid to risk their lives. With over 785,000 firefighters, in over 23,000 departments nationwide, there is obviously a need for unity and to bring members together.
But isn’t that what the Nation Volunteer Fire Council (http://www.nvfc.org) is for? The NVFC has done phenomenal things for the volunteer fire service at the state and national political level. The NVFC has the lobbying power, and backing to accomplish deeds on capital hill. NVFC states that they are the “Voice of America’s Volunteer Fire Service”, but tends to represent the departments themselves, and not its members.
Where the National Volunteer Firefighter’s Association differs is that they want to represent the members themselves, rather then their departments. This may seem like splitting hairs, but the association foresees times where they may have to represent members against their own officers or department. Additionally, their focus tends to be on improving the quality of life for individual member’s safety and finances, rather then the department as a whole.
Sounds like a union to me. So what about the International Association of Firefighters? (IAFF, http://www.iaff.org) IAFF has many of the same goals as the NVFA, but unfortunately their stance on not allowing their members to volunteer brings up a big issue. While IAFF could quadruple its current 260,000 members by adding volunteers, the attitude of ‘volunteers stealing jobs’ would have to be changed.
The IAFF and NVFA could be good allies, or one in the same, if they could play nice together. The problem comes when union contracts, such as the proposed contract in Hartford, CT, include causes prohibiting paid firefighters from volunteering.
I guess I just see it differently. The last time I fought a fire; it sure had the same heat, danger, and qualities as the one the paid guys fought. My apparatus sure looks a lot like theirs, and so does my list of duties. Why can’t we all just play nice together?
Then again the National Fire Protection Agency (NFPA, http://www.nfpa.org) seems to handle the standards issue. The NVFA feels that NFPA has the right idea, but the standards need to be developed with volunteers in mind, and enforced.
What we are left with is a bunch of alphabet soup initials, and the overall goal of betterment of the fire service. The question is, can we improve the service with the organizations we have, or must we launch our own union? (oops.. They’re calling it an association, not a union…)
The stated goals of the NVFA are admirable and needed, but the execution is going to be tough. First of all, there are three times as many volunteers as paid firefighters. Second, while the fire may be the same, volunteers have different challenges.
Volunteers must worry about recruitment, retention, fundraising, running their organization, complying with standards, paying the light bills, oh yeah, and fighting fires. Add that to the declining town/state budgets, a decrease in volunteerism, lack of employer participation, and multiple fire departments in the same area, and what you end up with is a mess.
What about if a volunteer firefighter is injured? Are they covered under their town workman’s compensation program? Who pays their bills? How about when they have given 20+ years to the department, is there a uniform retirement program? How about health insurance to cover their well being?
Then again, what about the departments who share 5 sets of turnout gear for 20+ members? My restoration project of a 1958 American LaFrance would have been a front line piece for some of those departments. Helping Our Own (http://www.helpingourown.org ) does the best they can, but they need help too.
I guess there is a place for a National Volunteer Firefighter’s Association, but the undertaking is monumental. Maybe it is time for us all to work together and help each other out. Whether it is through a volunteer’s union, or existing associations, the bottom line is, we need to address these issues. I wish the folks at the NVFA the best of luck, and I will lend them my support, but there are still 759,999 other volunteers that need to join in.
Join the Union discussion at: http://www.volunteerfd.org/phorum/list.php?f=16