Wildland Firefighter Entry Level Pay

General Discussion
#12

House Committee passes a 3.1 pay raise for federal employees for 2020.

“Federal employees keep our country running safely and efficiently every day. This modest pay increase is an important step towards recognizing the value of public servants and their hard work” - National Active and Retired Federal Employee Association National President Ken Thomas.

Some committee members cautioned that the legislation passed today will not be considered by Senate and is opposed by the President. As someone once said, elections have consequences.

The bill passed along party lines.

Thanks to the House Appropriations Committee for doing the right thing today.

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#13
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#14

They are going to need and deserve it with the way the CFAA Agreement is going. :slight_smile:

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#15

True.

FS can’t compete with LGs in Cali. Current focus of the FS is to do better than entry level pay for workers in the fast food industry. Let’s wish them luck in this honorable endeavor.

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#16

One small step in the right direction for fair pay and benefit to federal wildland firefighters is to ask for your House Rep. to support this bill:

Federal Retirement Fairness Act

it’s a bill to buy back our seasonal time.

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#17

So genuine question and not one of politics but since the thread has leaned in the direction of pay and benefits which is kind of like wages and working conditions…why don’t the Fed’s join the IAFF or a similar union?

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CFAA Agreement
#18

I just looked at an old work email from some time last year and it was a running tally of lost permanents in the last 5 years, I counted 63 which is actually at least 64 since the publisher of said email is now with another agency, and another blow is the years of service these employees were all in the 8-12 year range.

#19

incredible stats pushin.

Thanks.

Wake Up Vallejo!

I would like to know how many FS engines are either unstaffed or 5 day only staffed. By National Forest. I think Feinstein and Harris would be interested in knowing those numbers as

#20

Its all on us to push for the changes we want to see. Our voices, our emails, our data collection capabilities are strong.

We have to wake up a few public affairs officers, line officers and politicians if we want change.

#21

A post was merged into an existing topic: CFAA Agreement

#22

What happened to Cassy and his push to create a wildland series or attach to the current federal fire fighter series? It seemed like is was moving forward.

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#23

I don’t know. I know he’s trying. I won’t speak for the association and I greatly respect his efforts.

I do know that all associations need active members and money to succeed.

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#24

The first thing that needs to change is call them Firefighters. All ranks in the Federal Firefighting need significant equity raises in pay, benefits and retirement. Don’t be fooled the IAFF is working hard behind the scene to keep any of this from happening. IAFF members need to step up and demand the union leadership at least support the Federal Brothers.

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#25

Oh… I’ll regret it but I’ll jump in… so why does the iaff want to keep them labeled differently? Is that from the fed structure for the original creation of the Service… or has the iaff somehow corrupted the gov to keep them oppressed?

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#26

Certainly not an expert and barely a novice on federal labor laws. Just wanted to put that out there.

To the best of my knowledge, Federal employees have no collective bargaining rights when it comes to pay, benefits and retirement. I really don’t know what IAFF could do for us other than being a stronger voice. Our union does make recommendations on pay, benefits and retirement to administrations. They do testify before Congress.

unfortunately only a couple types of individuals that would I recommend go to fed firefighting anymore these days. Anyone truly interesting in firefighting as a career, I mostly point them towards local and state departments.

I know firefighters, great friends, who are perfectly satisfied with being a firefighter the whole career at LG departments. You can’t realistically do that with the Feds. The physical toll on your body is too much especially in the 40-50’s and the pay and retirement is too low.

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#27

I agree… it seems impossible to career an agency like that where the support is not there. The employees making it to retirement are broke off. Retention always seems a mess with fed/state because even as much as you love the agency and the job… the machine just eats you up. I would sure hope there is some way possible to get that strong voice to make change for them.

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#28

What I find interesting is that upper agency managers either don’t see this or refuse to believe it.

Right now each forest and the region are hiding actual numbers of firefighting modules that are unstaffed or under staffed.

They know they can keep this under the radar. Unless…

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#29

as a member of IAFF AN HAVE AT LEAST 40 YEARS OF FIRELAND FIREFIGHTING I HOPE TO ASSURE ALL THAT IAFF AND ALL LGS HAVE SUPPORTED THE CLASSIFICATION OF OUR BROTHERS AND SISTERS BEING CLASSIFIED AS WE ARE: FIREFIGHTERS, ENOUGH SAID.

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#30

iF I MAY ADD ? THESE ARE ALL FIREFIGHTERS BROTHERS AND SISTERS; BOTH INTERFACE AND WILD-LAND.

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#32

What do you do with the FS forestry tech who only fights fire 3 months out of the year? Do they have 2 qualifications, 3 months your a FS fire fighter and 9 months a forest tech? What happens when a fire breaks out in December (Great Smokey Mt’s National Park), and all your employees are forestry techs. A good union rep will not want to let Forestry Techs come fight that fire, that’s crossing the union line). Can you cross over and do double duty throughout the year? Will the union allow a forestry tech to fight fire? Can a firefighter repair a trails during the winter? If you are a firefighter, and you work in R5, does that mean the hot shots are firefighters also and as a firefighter do you have to loose the beard if the union says all firefighters are to be clean shaven for BA’s. And what about type 2 crews? What are they classified as? And how does a FMO on a forest back east get firefighters to come work for them if fire season is only 3 months long. They what a forest tech who can work year round and just do firefighting when necessary.

I see a whole lot of trouble creating a separate series for a firefighting classification when you only fight fire a couple of months out of the year. And as a former Forestry Tech in CA, i see a whole bunch of problems just here in CA, let alone the federal lands back East and South.; And I want the current forestry techs reclassified.