About Us
Libertyville Local 3892
The Libertyville Professional Firefighters Association Local
3892, a member of the International Association of Firefighters
(IAFF) and the Associated Firefighters of Illinois (AFFI) are
comprised of 34 sworn, full-time qualified and certificated
firefighters and Lieutenants employed by the Village of
Libertyville. The firefighters submitted an official request to
the Illinois Labor Relations Board (ILRB) to form a Union. On
January 18th, 1999, the firefighters voted with the ILRB and
were officially recognized as a Collective Bargaining Unit with
the state of Illinois and became IAFF Local 3892. Once the
members had officially formed Local 3892, the Union engaged in
very contentious negotiations with the Village of Libertyville
for their first contract. After several years of failed
negotiations and many months of arbitration, the members of
Local 3892 ratified their first contract in 2001. The
Lieutenant’s submitted a majority interest petition to join IAFF
Local 3892 in February, 2008. In September, 2008, the
Lieutenant’s voted in favor of joining Local 3892 after being
recognized as eligible to join by the ILRB. The Union is
currently working under their third contract which expires on
April 30, 2012.
The Union was formed due to the concerns of the members for both
their own benefit and for the benefit of the citizens of
Libertyville. The purpose of Local 3892, and all other IAFF
Unions, is to protect membership as well as the public. The
Union protects its members by ensuring equal wages and benefits,
providing a safe work environment, providing fair
representation, and having the ability to voice our concerns
about department issues. In turn, the public is also protected
by having the Union fight to improve the level of service to the
public. One example is to ensure that only full-time qualified
certificated personnel are staffing the fire stations.
Certificated qualified personnel has been identified by
municipal code 65 ILCS § 10-2.1-4 as those persons who hold
certificates of appointment to the fire department from a valid
register of eligible’s established by the Libertyville Fire and
Police Commissioners. Senate Bill 834, which was derived from
an arbitration decision awarded to Local 3892, ensures that the
full-time certificated personnel shall not be substituted
permanently or temporarily with non-sworn unqualified
personnel.
After this ruling, the Union was negotiating our third
contract. In recognition of the difficult economy, the Union
negotiated to allow the Village of Libertyville to phase out the
use of all contract workers over a period of 3 years. In 2010
the Union agreed to economic concessions to encourage a
continued (and accelerated) phase out of non-qualified
personnel. By agreeing to re-structure the bottom of the salary
scale (a concession worth a minimum of $165,000 over the next
several years) the Union made hiring new, qualified personnel
economically favorable to keeping non-qualified contractors.
Additionally, union members voted to take on an additional 2% of
our health insurance costs when non-union village employees were
required to do the same. This has ensured the department is
staffed with all full-time sworn certificated firefighter
paramedics.
The Union is also fighting to ensure that all three fire
stations are minimally staffed with enough
firefighter/paramedics to provide the efficient, professional
and timely service our residents deserve. The National Fire
Protection Association (NFPA) is the international authority on
fire codes and standards. Currently NFPA Standard 1710
recommends four-man engine companies, four-man truck or quint
companies and Advanced Life Support (ALS) ambulances to be
staffed with two EMT-Paramedics and two EMT-Basics.
The Libertyville Fire Department does not have a written minimum
staffing level to which it is committed. When the Village of
Libertyville switched from a one station fire department
(located at the current village hall location) to a two station
department (Stations 1 and 2 today) the department was committed
to maintaining four-man jump companies in each station plus one
shift commander. (Note: Jump companies are when a crew is
assigned to a set of vehicles and they “jump” to the apparatus
required by the current call. Traditional companies are
assigned to a designated apparatus.) When Station 3 was built
the department maintained a 13 man minimum (four-man jump
companies at all three stations plus shift commander).
Then, the department went to a minimum of 10 shift personnel on
duty (three-man jump companies at Stations 1, 2 and 3 plus one
shift commander). Recently, the village has dropped to a nine
man minimum (1 shift commander, three-man jump companies at
Stations 1 and 3, and a two-man company at Station 2). Although
the nine man minimum is currently not in practice, the Village
has not ruled out dropping back to that level in the future.
The Union does not support a nine-man minimum and will continue
the fight to increase staffing to appropriate levels for safe
and efficient emergency responses.
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