Affiliate Leadership Training Summit

The ALTS (Affiliate Leadership Training Summit) was held in Phoenix, AZ this year , Warren Nelson and myself were able to attend. ALTS is a training conference held every year, hosted by the IAFF, to train and equip union leaders to effectively carry out their duties as union officials.

The first day of the conference was a description of how the IAFF operates and what it does for us as union members. Here are some of the benefits and services that the IAFF provides us:

Governmental affairs
the use of political action to educate the leaders and decision makers of the country so they understand our issues.
o Bi partisan - support candidates that support us regardless of party affiliation.
o FirePAC - money that is collected from local members to support political action activities
o Political training academy - training course for union members on how we can be more effective in lobbying.
o The Canadian office of the IAFF models our political action lobby after the US lobby.

Canadian IAFF office
o Canadian Legislative Conference
o Canadian Policy Conference
o Affiliate requests for assistance - collective bargaining, health and safety, labour relations, public and media relations and strategic advice.

Technical assistance and advice - oversee labour issues and collective bargaining, fire/EMS operations/GIS, and other field services
o Municipal financial analysis services - shows the financial status of the city or municipality. We have used and will continue to use this valuable service.
o EMS and fire integration strategies - assists departments that want to add some form of EMS into their fire departments.
o GIS (geographic information system) studies - determine if stations/apparatus are positioned effectively.

Legal department - assistance with specific issues
o Emergency disputes fund
o Guardian policy - protects union officials doing union work
o IAFF constitution and bylaws

Education, training and human relations
o Regional PEP (partnership education programs) courses
o ALTS
o Online resources for union members – some are available on the EMS Jane website
o Human relations - training and outreach on issues regarding human relations and diversity.
o Hazardous materials and WMD training program. Due to our own political action in Canada we now receive $500,000 a year from the government for this IAFF developed program to educate our members.

Communications and media
o IAFF magazine
o Web site
o Media awards -PR for the fire service by awarding media for their coverage of emergency incidents
o Union Sportsman's Alliance

Information Technology - Website
o Used by executive members to update member rosters, request assistance, and educational information on union issues

Health Safety and Medicine
o Presumptive legislation assistance
o PSOB - Public Safety Officer Compensation - when a firefighter dies in the line of duty the federal government pays out an amount (in excess of $300,000 at this time). The Canadian office has been, and continues, to lobby the federal government for this benefit.
o Liaison/contacts - NIOSH, OSHA, NFPA, Firefighter Near Miss
o Grants and initiatives
o IAFF/IAFC joint health and wellness program

IAFF Financial Corporation - To Canadian IAFF members, offers home and vehicle insurance through TD Insurance

Work with Muscular Dystrophy Association


As 2008 ends and we enter 2009, IAFF Local 237 will be going into negotiations. I spent two days of the conference taking courses on negotiations. Here is an outline of what our negotiations entail:

- The union receives proposals for negotiations from the membership and the union executive. During an executive meeting with the trustees the executive makes recommendations on each of the proposals. These recommendations are then voted on at a membership meeting.
- Both sides submit proposals and begin to divide proposals into housekeeping (non-monetary issues that are fairly minor in nature), non-monetary issues (which are changes to the agreement that do not incur financial changes to the agreement) and monetary issues (wages, holiday changes/additions, benefits, etc.)
- Negotiations then begin in the hope that both sides can come to an agreement that will satisfy both sides.
- If both sides come to an impasse an appointed government mediator will try to assist the negotiating teams to come to an agreement.
- Binding arbitration is the last resort if both negotiations and mediation are unsuccessful.

Not every item can be negotiated into the contract. Some may be difficult to argue. Some of these issues may be dropped or can be used as bargaining tools.

It is not an easy task deciding which items need to be taken off of the table. The union executive's job is to decide which items can be fought for effectively. Their number one priority is to ensure that the needs of the membership as a whole are met.

The ALTS (Affiliate Leadership Training Summit) was an educational experience for myself. I will be able to use this information during our upcoming Negotiations.

Thanks

Dana Terry
Treasurer IAFF Local 237