Pickenhg Professional Firefighters Association Newsletter

Volume 2, Issue

I
THIS NE\IYSLETTER HAS

Spring 2000

Nfessage frorrn yuunr

2000 Mfunicipa{

Executive
Well this year looks like it is starting right where last year left off, With the talk of Automatic Aid and the ongoing talks about dispatch amalgamation, all
this with no consultation from the PPFA" The present Executive has found this past year a very tough and ftustrating time. The City was going to hire two new Dispatchers or Firefighters to fill'in the two vacancies for Dispatch but as of today we are still short the two positions which must be filled every shift with a Firefighter that should be on the trucks.

BEEN CREATED FOR THE MEMBERS AND FAMILIES OF LOCAL 16T2. HoPEFULLY IT YtrILL KEEP US
INFORMED ON ISSUES

With the new Millenium also comes the 2000 Municipal Election. The time
has come for every Firefighter in this local to put their time and effort into this upcoming fall election. We as the

THAT AFFEGT OUR

Down to 68 Firefighters
Our Firefighting complement is dovm to an all time low of 68 Firefighters on the

floor to protect a City with a population

of more than 88,000. CAREERS AS FULL.TIME

Whitby - Hiring 20 New Firefighters

Uhitby Council has passed the hiring 20 new Firefighters which \Mill bring therr up to 90 Full-time Firefighters,

of

PROFESSIONAL FIREFIGHTERS. \IYE wrLL Dtscuss LocAL,

REGIONAL
INTERNATIONAL ISSUES

Pickering Firefighters Association must back the candidatds) that will listen to the Association before fire related iszues are bnought forward to council. Please help out the Association and get involved in the next election. This can be something as simple as handing out flyers for the candidate, answering phones, putting in lawn signs or helping on election day. The members of the PPFA can make a difference in elections if we all contribute our time and effort. One ofthe courses that was offered at the Spring seminar held in Niagaru Falls this March was Governme,nt Relations. Tho PPFA sent Colin Arnott to attend this very important session. Colin has come back with some new ideas for the fall election and will be asking members to get involved. Gerry Pedwell our newly elected VicePresident affended the Legislative Conference in Ottawa from April 9th -

Ajax-HiringgNew
Firefighters
Ajax council passed the hiring of eight new Firefighters and one Fire Prevention Officer,

THAT AFFECT US AS
FIREFIGHTERS. IF YOU

l2rh. SUGGESTIONS THIS

OR

PRESIDENT'S PAGER: 416-517 -3393

Annual Membership Meeting

was held on March 16100 at Papps at 1900 hours. This year generated great interest as we now have two ne\M Executive Officers, Thanks goes out to Lorne McNeil and Al Urbas u&o helped out with the elections,

CONCERNS TO BETTER NEWSLETTER

PLEASE FEEL FREE TO

CONTACT A MEMBER OF YOUR EXECUTIVE.

2 3
fdeep Tnc& of Attendanre
4

PPFA 2000-0

I Executive:

2000
It
seems like

Grievance [Ipdate
the Economic Planning it on
We had 15 grievances outstanding from 1999:. Grievances #l-#6 & #12-99 are being dealt with by our legal counsel. We are hoping to resolve the other 8 of these by the end of April, The City thinks that every grievance is a waste of

President:

Bruce Kinsman Pager: 416-517-3393

Committee just"finished last years contract talks, but we were back at

Vice President:
Gerry Pedwell
Secretary - Treasurer:

March lOth, Our Commiuee has had

many meetings so far regarding the issues. We will have the interest of the membership in mind as decisions are made at the table. The 2000 bargaining team members
are:

their time. Well guess what, the committee gives up their oFduty time too. So we don't see any grievances as
a waste of time. The grievance procedure is the only vehicle the PPFA has to get management and the City officials to talk.

Colin Arnott
Immediate Past President: Fred Hyland

Ian Eibbitt (spokesperson) Fred Hyland John Hagg Bruce Kinsman

The bargaining team is hoping for a good round of negotiations this year. We hope to have a settlement reached in a timely fashion. Once again the bargarning team will not discuss any issues with any members outside of the

Calls as ofApril

1999 Grievances:
#1-#6 & #12-99 ne regarding Rick Strong's te,rmination. #7-#8-99 were for Bob Williams not receiving his holiday pay wtren he retired. On advice from our legal counsel the PPFA has
withdrurwn these two grievances.

r0/00

Ilall#2-373

#3#4-

61 61

#5-330 #6-345
Public Relations:

bargaining room.

Lotto-6149 Wnner
Lynne Medora our newest retiree will find life a little easier with her $74,000

windfall.

Labour/

ent

#9-99 is regarding the Sick Leave Bank. This has bee,n resolved with the new sick leave bank request f,orm. The members must fill out the request form each and every time they are requesting a draw from the Sick Leave Bank.

Kirk Smythe
Executive Officers: Ian Eibbitt
John Mairs

The City is blindsiding us at these meetings with new issues. The PPFA would like to see the items that the City is bringing forward for these meetings at least 24 hours in advance. This will give the Association time to prepare for proper discussion.

#10-#ll-99 are concerning Ron heland Regarding withholding salary. We hope to have this resolved soon.
#13-99 has been withdraram. This was a grievance concerning how members were being chose,n to affend courses. #14-#l
5 -99

Hall Telephone Numbers Hall #2 - 905-837-2566

# s - 905-837-27s6 # 6 - 905-837-0s4r

Regarding Colin Arnott.

He was not allowed to come back to

Office Phone I Fur:

905-427-6415

High*ay # 407
With Highway # 407 slated to com.e right through Brougham the Assmiation would like to see the City become proactive and think
about staffing Clare,mont on a

work in a modified position. @iqpatch

had a vacancy and still does.) This has
been resolved. Colin was given back his 16 personal sick days and #15 the PPFA will not get any days put back in

E-mail us at: pickfire@idirect.com

full-

the bank.

Visit our Web Site:

http //webhom
:

time basis.

e.

idirect.

com/-pickfire/

P.P.F..[ Nemslettrr

The Story 0f the Nfaltese

Cross
The badge of a firefighter is the Maltese Cross. The Maltese Cross is a rymrbol of protection, abadge of honour, and its story is hundreds of years ofd, When a courageous band of crusaders, known as the Knights of St. John, fought the Saracens for possession of the Holy Land, they were faced with a new weapon not known to European fighters. It was a simple but horrible device ofwar. The Saracens weapon was fire. As the crusaders advanced on the walls of the City, they were bombarded with glass bombs

Heatrth and

Safety
The clothing committee has been working on some new items that should be on our 2000 uniform issue, The measuring of uniforms should be taking place in April.
The new pumper will be headittg to Station # 5 shortly and heading to Station # 3 will be the Mack. City Council passed the new Aerial and the Truck Committee is already looking at the trucks available.

Sick Leave Bank days as of March 24r 2000:

138.45 Days
Note: you must apply to the bank each and every time you request it.

Hockuy l{ews
The Team finished in second place in the Southern Ontario Fire Fighters Hockey League this year, Toronto was our first opponent in the playoffs. Pickering won both games by scores of 4-3 n overtime and 5-0 to advance to the final against North York. The one day final was held at Westwood arena on Tuesday March 28, 2000. Pickering beat North York by ascore of 4-0 and are nolu the cec)) division champio'ns of the Southsrn Ontario Fire Fighters Hockey League.

Firelighter's

badge of honou4 signifying tltut he works in coar&ge u ludder rang awayfrom death.

containing naphtha. When they were saturated with the liquid, the Saracens threw flaming torches into the crusaders, Hundreds of knights were burned alive while others risked their lives in an effort to save their

Public Relations
Kirk Smythe and Lorne McNeil are once again working hard on the 3rd Bill Jerdan Mernorial golf tourname,nt which will be
held on Thursday June 15, 2000 at Four Seasons Golf
Course. Al is working days and Bl is working nights. Please try and make arrange,meqts to attend this event. Even ifyou are not a golfer, Kirk and

kinsmen from painful fiery deaths. Thus these men became the first Firemen, and the first of a long line of Firefighters. Their heroic efforts were recognized by fellow crusaders who awarded each other with a badge of honor similar to the cross firefighters
wear today. Since the Knights of St. John lived for close to four centuries on the island of Malta, in the Mediterranean Sea, the cross name came to b known as the Maltese Cross. The Maltese Cross is your s)4nbol of protection. It means that the Firefighter that wears this cross is willing to lay down his life for you, just as the crusaders sacrificed their lives for their fellow man so many years ago. The Maltese Cross is a Firefighter's badge of honor, signifyrng thathe works in courage - a ladder rung away from death.

Athtrefes in Aetion Ontario Carmps

by Brwce Compton
By the time our newsletter is published and distributed I will have been to Haiti. This marks the second time I have gone to this country, poorest in the Western hemisphere, I enjoy doing this t1pe of work as it gives me a chance to participate in sport and promote my faith. Athletes in Action Ontario Camps is a charitable organizatiorr which uses sport to develop the social, mental, physical and spiritual characteristics in our children for a reasonable cost to us parents. Thanks to all those who have take,n this opporfunity to provide finan cial support for this mission trip.

Lorne could use your help

on this day.

Ifyou know of anyone that would like to help sponsor this event or would like to donate prizes please forward this information to Kirk or Lorne as smn as possible.

Aaron Feldman - Training Officer Vancouver Fire & Rescue Services Vancouver, 8.C., Canada

P.P.FA

Neualetter"

Id*p

af Vowr Resotrwtion an Pic&ering Attemdance Fire Departrrtent

Tracnr
The Executive passed a resolution on the Piikering Fire Department name change that was bnought to the

Shift News
Bl - Update: Bruce Compton was down in Haiti, teaching the I{aitian kids how to play
baseball, soccer and basketball. Jim Young was on WSIB for a bnoken finger. Mark Harvey and Jennifer are expecting a 'little

From your Secretaryl

Treasurer
Over the last few months, I have had the opportunity to work with Finance on the procedure fon attendance reporting. The purpose of this column is to advise each one ofyou to keep track ofyorn olur personal attendance records and ask questions if something doesn't seem right. During the grievances we've been going through recently, the atte,lrdance records of the Corporation have come under scrutiny. The records of three e,mployees (me being one) have had to be r@onciled. The Corporation was wrong on each one of these sifuations. The Associations numbers ended up being the correct numbers. I also went through an exercise late last yaffi, whe,n we were trying to reconcile the sick bank. There were eight e,mployees udrose sick time entitleme,nts we thought were incorrect. Once again, the Association's numbers were correct and the Corporation was wrong.

membership meeting on Tuesday January 11,2000. This was passed with an unanimous vote.

Whereas It is a long

and honoured

hadition that firefighters have worked in the Pickering Fire Departmffit, and

manny in the summer',

we The Jireftghters serve has who ore the embraced the term oPickering Fire "Fire Department" and uses Departmcnt" hove this rnms without t.ritiilrr, ' never been and
Whereas The public that
1

IVhereas The Tov*n

Pickering

of a

TTuT,being

by-law that establishes the '?ickering Fire Departme,nt" has not been repealed or amended by Council, and

consulted ubout this changing of thk honoured nome

Colin Arnott is running
the Boston Marathon in

Whereas

The firefighters who are

April.
- Len Greene returned to work on March 30th. Ron Roberge has applied

the

'?ickering Fire

Al

The attendance reporting procedure is quite archaic aled a lot of it is still b"i*g done with paper and pencil.
Here's what happens to your attendance
records-

Department" have never been consulted about this changing of this honoured
namg,

for LTD. L2 - Warren Johnston had

a bnoker finger and was allowed to do modified duties as the dispatcher.

Therefore be it
resolved that The Pickering Professional Firefi ghters Association strenuously objects to any atte,mpt to
change our name,

+
=>

Your Captain marks you present or

absent and sends it to headquarters. Headquarters records it in a master book and sends it up to Finance. Finance makes a copy of the attendance and forwards it for
palmnent.

82 - Tony Richard the

only stay at home defenceman had a bad break in the hockey
tournament this year. A broken ankle that is. The team hut with the loss of Tony as we didn't make it into the final four. Hope
you have a speedy recovery. We would like to welcome Mike Harvey to the shift as he started on April 6th.

And be it ftrrther resolved that

=)

A copy

This is all a manual process and as you can see, there are three chances of error. Please keep a personal diary of your attendance and compare it to the master list which is published Febnuarr.y 28th of
each year.

of this resolution be sent to the Mayon and all members of Council for the Tovrn of Picktrirg, the Fire Marshal for the Province of Ontario, the HON. Janet Ecker, MPP, the International Association of Fire Fighters, the Canadian Association of Fire Fighters and the Ontario Professional Fire Fighters Association,