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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.