To be honest I love my job, and the grass may be greener on the other side but it’s usually just fertilized with other sh!t. A lot of us that are still working for the feds will retire soon enough that it doesn’t make sense to start over with a new agency. I’m just glad we have all these folks vocally fighting for us, and now with social media and these cool little devices in our hands I feel our voices are actually being heard.
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12 weeks to go! When’s the last time you wrote your Representatives in Congress?
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Without pay reform the US Forest Service fire program will phase itself out very rapidly. It’s already going down that road at a rapid clip. Soon we won’t have any qualified employees to not only fill roles but won’t be able to certify the up and comers. Hopefully I can make it to retirement before the death rattle stops. Soon region 5 will have red engines at our stations. Which will also mean the stations will get rebuilt and have drinkable water.
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Good luck CALFIRE. Hope this works out for you. Meanwhile the feds are doing all they can to lock in at 17-18 an hour for entry level. Target entry needs to be 21 and scale up from there by rank and locality. However more likely everyone loses 766 a check come October 1. What’s the plan WO and Vallejo? Jamie?
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The average monthly total compensation for a Cal Fire battalion chief was $29,697
LOL, she needs to reread the report, that was for the other 20 Depts. She neglects to inform her readers that that includes working 28 more hours per week just to get to 40% less than everyone else.
That being said, I hope CalFire gets something close along w/the greenies getting over $20/start. Call those who represent you and put in your voice for both Fed & State.
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What unit is that in cause I’m clearly not in the right place. Lol I guess I need to work a lot more overtime.
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No word still on retention or perm raise and cal fire test open Monday 
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Educate your folks, take care of there family’s.
Push them over to the state ASAP.
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Its a poor image on fed fire agencies that the most up to date info we can get regarding if fed wildland employees are going to see a dramatic pay cut, is on a message board. I highly respect this site for good info, and have since inception of the original site, but the f.s. needs to step up and be real with their employees. I’ve been a full time fed for 15 yrs, and have witnessed a continual decline in the quality of seasonal employees we hire. Even dangling a 20k “raise” (not a true raise as we all know) has not changed the quality of employees we have been getting. Low numbers, and bottom of the barrel. The ones that stick around bail for cal fire asap. The feds with 15 yrs full time twiddle their thumbs and weight options to leave.
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I agree. Lately I have been asking my peers if they have noticed a decline in quality of employees concerning attitude, ability, motivation etc. because it has been noticeable the last couple years to me. Everyone agrees and is over being a supervisor having to deal with ER and the drama that comes with it. This also effects retention. It’s a chain reaction. Not to mention the safety issues that go with it. I have denied employees going to fires lately because they can’t safely do the job. It’s horrible these days to be a frontline supervisor.
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If you’re a Fed Captian or engineer, do what this person did and do not allow these people on the line if there is a safety issue. Shut your engine or crew down! Use your lack of ability to staff equipment as a statistic to the issue. We’ve been good at just making it happen and jumping through hoops to get as many engines and crews staffed as possible. We probably need to stop that and staff less with more quality!
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This is an excellent post Region5emgineer.
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Filling out the form, I hope this passes
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Where can I read the Wildland Firefighter Paycheck Protection Act (WFPPA) and how does it differ from the recently revised Tim Hart Act?
It hasn’t been assigned a number yet. Essentially the same as the presidents budget proposal
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Thanks for sharing when you see it. The recently revised Tim Hart Act is going to be hard to beat.
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You’re not alone. Wildland firefighters are in good company. People all over the country are demanding fair pay, fair benefits and equitable compensation for their work. Firefighters have an extra burden, in that it is more difficult for a firefighter to simply go on strike and picket outside the base camp of a large incident, or I dare say a disaster.
People experience the increased risk and danger. It’s shameful that some politicians and executives use that against firefighters. It’s clear that people do not evaluate the risk of shortchanging wildland firefighters the same from region to region, nor do they feel equally imperiled by public lands that are running at 3/5 capacity, or worse.
I do think its important to remember that you are not alone, and that, by and large, people do understand, or I hope they understand, that there are firefighters who are not walking away, precisely because there is no one else to stand to the danger.
But its not just firefighters and EMTs, its an issue with a lot of different facets of the larger picture, including operators, volunteers, the hold up with the C-130s that CAL FIRE is waiting for, the need for FMAGs when fires get out of control because there is insufficient mitigation, the farmers who grow the steak and spicy potatoes, the baristas who pour the coffee and the writers who tell the story, in all aspects of natural resources and conservation.
Some jobs, necessary for career advancement and the health of our natural resources, do not pay anything at all, or a pittance of a stipend. This is a barrier to talented and dedicated individuals who would be doing this work, and consequently reducing large wildfire risk and damage, because the only people who can take those jobs are people who, for intents and purposes, do not need the money. It stinks.
Whether you support unions or not, it’s common sense to make common cause with labor in this country, at large and in general. This doesn’t obligate you to support any and all pay disputes. Nor does it prevent operators, contractors, cooperators, vendors, volunteer, and non-profit organizations from honest and fair dealings with both the government and their employees.
It’s important to remember who supported you when the squeeze was put on you, and to help them back when the squeeze is put on them. There is a whole generation of public servants who broke their backs for this country and are now looking at trying to live on Social Security and Medicare because they were hustled from temporary posting to temporary posting for decades. I know a few, and I’m sure you do, too.
You’re not being singled out, and you are not alone. Don’t allow the deadbeats to divide you from the people you fight for and serve.
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