The High Price of Short Staffing

In this time of uncertainty and with the specter of terrorism ever present, it is hard to believe that any responsible public official would oppose safe and adequate fire fighter staffing.

But the fact is that efforts to expand fire department staffing are rebuffed every day in city councils, county commissions, and fire district meetings across our two nations.

The fact is that too many politicians are simply willing to ignore the truth and continue to play a dangerous game of firehouse roulette with public safety and the lives of professional fire fighters.

Staffing remains a central issue for our union, spanning the spectrum from our largest to our smallest locals. Across our two nations, two-thirds of our fire departments are understaffed, and an even larger number cannot meet the requirements of NFPA 1710.

At a time when you and our quarter-million members are being asked to assume greater responsibilities in the name of Homeland Security, and at a time when fire and EMS calls are at an all-time high, you and your brothers and sisters across our nations are being asked to do more with less.

Despite the increasing demands on the time, services, and skills of our members, there are many fire departments in this nation that have fewer personnel today than they had two decades ago. Meanwhile, the populations and risk hazards of their jurisdictions have grown dramatically.

This International and our affiliate leaders across the United States and Canada continue to make their case for increased staffing day in and day out. Armed with NFPA 1710, the IAFF implementation and campaign guides, and the many studies that attest to the safety, efficiency, and effectiveness of adequate staffing, our leaders at every level of this union are fighting for increased fire fighter staffing.

And some of them pay a high price for their leadership. In several cases, union leaders who spoke out on staffing and public safety issues were disciplined or even fired for telling the truth. But the IAFF has drawn a line in the sand - and we are using our Legal Guardian program and our Emergency Disputes Fund to help our local leaders and our affiliates fight back.

Take the case of Dean Bitner, the president of Springdale, AR Local 3007, who was denied a promotion to captain and then fired for speaking out before the City Council on inadequate staffing, personnel retention, and other public safety issues. Brother Bitner’s case is described on page one of this issue of the International Fire Fighter.

Here was a guy with an exemplary record, who scored first on the captain’s exam, who didn’t have a blemish on his 11-year record with the department, and who was summarily fired last April on trumped up charges of insubordination and subversive behavior. Brother Bitner had the courage and the determination to speak out, as was his right as a union leader and an American, and the city violated his rights and nailed him.

The city was wrong, the fire chief was wrong - and our union stepped forward to make it right.

Working with Arkansas Professional Fire Fighters President Pete Reagan, the IAFF General Counsel defended Brother Bitner’s rights, first before the Civil Service Commission and then in federal court.

In both arenas, justice prevailed. The commission reinstated Brother Bitner to his job, and in mid-October the federal court jury not only awarded him compensatory damages and back pay, but it levied personal punitive damages against both the Springdale mayor and the fire chief. Since then, the city has settled, ending Brother Bitner’s long ordeal, making him whole, and promoting him to the captain’s rank he deserves.

I wish that was the end of such stories of ill-treatment and blatant discrimination against local union officials, but there are too many other similar cases still pending, particularly in the South. In places like Prestonsburg, KY, Odessa, Texas, and Atmore, Ala., the IAFF is putting our financial strength, our political power, and our substantial legal resources and expertise on the line to stand with our beleaguered local union officers and members as they fight for their rights and their livelihoods.

We can’t and we won’t give up.

We can’t let President Bush and his appointees, including FEMA Director Joe Allbaugh and Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge, get away with saying that fire fighter staffing is a local issue and opposing our SAFER legislation in Congress.

We cannot let cities, counties, and fire districts, and misguided volunteers stifle our calls for safe fire fighter staffing.

We can’t let city managers, mayors, city councils, county commissions, fire chiefs, or fire district boards intimidate our local union leaders into silence on such a critical life and death issue.

Just look at the situation in Houston, where Captain Jay Jahnke was killed in an October 2001 high-rise fire. His brave widow raised the staffing issue during her husband’s funeral. From the church pulpit, Mrs. Jahnke shamed the mayor into immediately increasing apparatus staffing to four, although he used overtime to fill all the positions. But now, a year later, the city still hasn’t funded those positions, and continues to fill them with overtime.

To make matters worse, the official Houston Fire Department report on the fire whitewashed the incident and said that staffing was not a factor in Brother Jahnke’s death. The credibility of that report was questionable when it was issued. In fact, it was so questionable that at least one senior fire officer was demoted because he wouldn’t endorse it. And it is even more questionable now with the release of the independent, unbiased federal report from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health that makes it clear that staffing was definitely a factor in the incident.

That was the third fire fighter death in 18 months in Houston - and staffing was an issue in all of them.

Last January, in St. Thomas, Ontario, Captain Dennis Redman was killed in the line of duty along with a civilian during a fire at a four-story senior citizens home where fire fighters were severely understaffed. There were only seven fire fighters on the scene in the first 20 minutes to conduct multiple rescues when Brother Redman died.

The facts are clear. Short staffing continues to kill and seriously injure our members and it results in many additional civilian deaths. So why in God’s name do public officials turn their backs on this critical life and death issue? How can they do so in good conscience?

We understand that staffing costs money and that many communities are facing fiscal problems in these tough economic times. But that is no reason for local elected officials to ignore the need to increase staffing or to deny that staffing problems exist in their departments. They are doing a disservice to the citizens they represent - and to all of you who protect those citizens.

These city and county officials should join with the IAFF and the IAFC in our efforts to win federal funding to help their communities increase their staffing, instead of spending time and resources trying to minimize the tremendous risks. They should work with our local unions to find reasonable, acceptable, and effective solutions to their staffing problems.

My message to our opponents is very simple. The more that you ignore and whitewash this issue, the more determined and resolute the IAFF will become. The longer you place our citizens and fire fighters at risk, the more we will demand that you are held accountable. Either join with us in solving this critical problem or stay the hell out of our way.

Click Here to Read President Schaitberger's Past Messages

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