What is real funny, our president is forgiving 10000 dollars for student loan debut, for at total cost 300-500 billion dollars. But here we are asking just to get a true pay raise, not a “retention bonus”. Just a little piece of that money could give us what we are due and need. But hold on, they don’t care that we are risking our lives everyday to protect Federal Lands. So I say, let it burn.
They don’t care about the working people of this country. Hell, they paid people not to work. I would say go to the poll but not sure now if that would do any good now days. I just going to stop here!
Agreed, but don’t count on the Presidents loan reduction promise to ever come to pass. He has no authority himself to do it. Lawsuits will fly! Republicans and some Democrats in tough election districts do not support it, that’s why a bill can’t get it passed. It’s all mid-term bs messaging. If you’ve watched since he made the announcement they don’t talk about it anymore. The internal polling on it is bad for them. It has ticked off a lot of people, even those that have loans have spoken against it. We’ll see if it ever happens. An Executive Order only states that it’s their goal to forgive as a policy.
Super quiet any updates? Next September will be here sooner than not
Heres the latest update!
NFFE Ltr to USDA FS on Urgent Retention Concerns 9-20-22 .pdf (342.6 KB)
Solid letter
That’s about as good as anyone could’ve written it. It’s transparent and true the whole way through. Just a reminder to everyone to keep on the heels of your congress people. Thank you Hurryup for sharing.
Please share it with our WLFF community. Txt it. Print it. Email it. We need people to see what is being done at the national level.
Hi,
I stumbled across this on Facebook. It may (or may not) be of interest-
https://www.fs.usda.gov/employee-services/wellbeing-support/deepdive
The BIL retention bonuses have turned out to be a confusing inconsistent mess. How do any two Employees making over 40k base a year have to different bonus figures? Math is math. The non exempt overtime element to the bonus cannot be explained by anyone. The extra funds are much appreciated. But did Forest and DOI HR have to make this impossible to implement?
This is all pretty simple. $21 an hour entry level starting pay and scale up from there. Portal to portal for all assignments. Done
I wish their brains would consider such a simple resolution. I feel most people I’ve talked to have explained that same notion. It would be a great time to shake the etch-a-sketch and start from scratch. Maybe not now, but I feel it would have been simpler to create something fresh and new instead of having to mull over hundreds of PDs. I guess the thought is a day late and a buck short. We’ll have to see what they come up with.
Now that we seem to have a short pause in fire activity, please take a moment to ask Randy Moore and other agency leadership the status of his statement within the 3rd paragraph at the link below related to portal to portal. Ask if an implantation plan has been drafted with timeframes. How are the discussions coming along?
If you’re DOI ask your leadership and OWF the status of portal to portal with the Forest Service and will it be implemented within DOI. I am fairly certain DOI doesn’t want to lose more Wildland Firefighters to the Forest Service and so you might just get a response. Ask away and ask often.
Force this issue to the table.
https://www.fs.usda.gov/inside-fs/leadership/chiefs-desk-increased-payments-firefighters-achieved
I am emailing a survey for firefighter covered employees who may have been missed or excluded from the supplemental pay.
The goal of collecting this information is so that the Deputy Regional Forester and RO FAM can follow up to resolve issues collectively in support of R5 employees.
https://forms.office.com/g/EUHA64zmFq
Please share widely and encourage those who need help with this issue to respond.
