IAFF EMS Conference Kicks Off in Miami

June 8, 2009 – IAFF members from the United States and Canada are in Miami, Florida, this week for the 10th Biennial Dominick F. Barbera EMS Conference. This year’s theme, “Leading Through a Crisis: EMS and the Current Economy,” addresses the ongoing recession and its effect on IAFF members and fire-based EMS.

Welcoming members to the conference, IAFF General President Harold Schaitberger explained that the best defense against dangerous resource cuts and budget reductions is political action. “Elections do make a difference,” he said.

“We must always remind ourselves that the most effective way to ensure we have a seat at the table when decisions are made about our profession, about EMS integration and about an all-hazards approach is by educating the public and electing to office those who’ll embrace our views, and working to defeat those who don’t have our interests at heart.”

To help bring laid-off fire fighters back on the job and to prevent future job loss, the IAFF has been focused on funding the Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response (SAFER) grants and relaxing the grant rules.

“The president’s budget proposal to Congress last month includes a doubling of funding for SAFER for fiscal year 2010, taking it from $210 million in 2009 to $420 million beginning next October 1,” Schaitberger announced.

He added, “While the last administration continuously zeroed out the budget for this program, in Barack Obama’s first budget proposal of his new administration, he’s doubling the funding, allowing us to help re-write the rules and change the authorization language that will help your departments gain easier access to that funding”

Schaitberger also reminded conference attendees that, in addition to political action, expanding the list of life-saving services is crucial to job security. He advised IAFF affiliates to continue to push for fire-based EMS (if they do not have it already) and to “be open and innovative to ideas that increase the value of our member to their communities, to make them even more indispensable to their citizens and enhance their job enrichment and security that much more.”

Over the course of three days, IAFF members will have more opportunities to learn various strategies for surviving the economic crisis and other important issues facing emergency medical service personnel from other speakers, workshops and exhibits.