Avra Valley Fire Fighters Finally Have a Voice

April 27, 2010 – After three years of fighting for a voice, Avra Valley Fire District fire fighters represented by West Valley Fire Fighters Local 4462 have won the right to meet and confer.

The road was long, but it was worth the trip. “When we began trying to make our voice heard regarding workplace safety and other issues, there were not very many receptive ears on the Avra Valley Fire District Board,” says West Valley Fire Fighters Local 4462 President Brian Lassen. “It took speaking out about safety violations, electing fire fighter-friendly fire district board members and finding a supportive fire chief before we could approach the possibility of meet and confer.”

For Local 4462 fire fighters, workplace safety became a real concern on March 17, 2007, when fire fighters responded to a hazardous materials spill. In part, because of the way the Avra Valley Fire District handled the incident, more than a half-dozen public-safety personnel were injured.

Lassen and others complained to the Arizona Department of Occupational Safety and Health Safety (ADOSH) about how Avra Valley Fire District handled the incident.

ADOSH passed down $366,000 in fines for workplace safety violations – the largest finding in state history without a fatality. The department cited Avra Valley for 47 workplace safety violations.

Because of their participation in the ADOSH investigation, Lassen and others experienced retaliatory measures from the fire district. “It was around this time that the Professional Fire Fighters of Arizona became involved to help us combat the retaliation and to help us make the correct steps toward gaining meet and confer,” says Lassen.

Shortly after ADOSH handed down the fines, Pima County administrators reported that the Avra Valley Fire District was about to run out of money for that fiscal year. The fire board responded by laying off half of Avra Valley’s fire fighters and closing two of the tax district’s three fire stations.

Later, the fire board reached a court settlement with ADOSH which allowed the fines to be reduced, but called for the Avra Valley Fire District to spend $125,000 over the next two years in safety training.

In the wake of the turmoil, one of the board members stepped down, leaving an open position. Seeing an opportunity to appoint a fire fighter-friendly candidate on the board, Lassen’s wife, Aleyna, put her name in for consideration and was appointed to the board.

Not long after that, another fire board member tendered his resignation. That position was filled by Tucson Local 479 member Mike Garcia.

Meanwhile, under the pressure of the mismanaged hazardous materials incident, Fire Chief Barry Gerber resigned in November 2007. Tom Nix was appointed as interim chief in January 2008. His abilities to maintain safe public safety practices soon came under fire.

In response, the Avra Valley Fire District Board put Nix on administrative leave in November 2008 and later hired Tucson Local 479 member Brian Delfs as the permanent fire chief.

“The great thing was that Delfs made it clear that he would not accept the chief position unless Local 4462 fire fighters were granted meet and confer,” says Lassen.

The fire district board complied with Delf’s request in April 2010. “In just the short amount of time that we have had meet and confer, we have already been invited to discussions regarding next year’s budget,” says Lessen. “That’s huge, especially considering where we were three years ago.”