Kissimmee Professional Fire Fighters, IAFF Local 4208

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Kissimmee Professional Fire Fighters, IAFF Local 4208

Kissimmee Professional Fire Firefighters IAFF Local 4208

07/16/2024

Last night our members attended the Alianza Forum to show our support for . Jackie supports Public Safety and we support Jackie!

04/18/2024

One of our own is fighting cancer and we need your help. Purchase a “Kissimmee Cares” shirt today to show your support! All proceeds will be donated to the O’Neal family.

Go to IAFFLocal4208.myShopify.com to purchase.

10/22/2023

This is so accurate! Our membership just lost 3 more experienced paramedics. City and Dept Leaders can spin the numbers however they choose to make it sound better to new recruits coming out of school, but the fact that the Kissimmee Fire Department continues to lose good, experienced firefighter/paramedics means there’s a problem! Wake up if employees aren’t taken care of by you, they will find another employer who will. Our members are watching testing standards for new hires become lower than the standards placed on current employees out of desperation to try and replace the members we keep losing. Stop ignoring the issues and starting working with our Union Leadership to correct these issues before it’s too late.

.fetzer1

10/17/2023

It looks like Fire Department Leaders forgot that our members can’t be managed like the inanimate objects they wish our members were. As a result, there are 3 more Firefighter/Paramedics leaving the Fire Department at the end of this week! (Spoiler Alert: there are more leaving before the end of the year!) More vacancies means our members have to pick up the slack even more. Too bad those Leaders didn’t listen when the Union’s Leaders told them this was coming. Instead of dismissing our Union Leadership maybe it’s time to listen to them. When Fire Department Leaders and Union Leaders come together magical workplace changes can occur. You wouldn’t argue with someone giving you the answers to a test, so why argue with Union Leaders when they provide simple strategies that could instantly improve your Department or business? Stop thinking the Union Leaders are against you and starting asking why do they keep bringing up the same issues!

10/14/2023

What a concept! Provide COMPETITIVE COMPENSATION TO EMPLOYEES. Why is it that the Union has to fight for better wages, better hours, better retirement? Why do we constantly fight our own Leaders just to get better compensation? All Chiefs should be fighting FOR their members, not against them. All Chiefs should be proud of their Departments and try to build them better than it was when they came on, but our Chiefs are too busy telling our members that the Kissimmee Fire Department is just a “stepping stone Dept”.

So “Stepping Stone Depts” spend time and tax payer dollars to become Accredited?

.fetzer1

10/06/2023

Year 1 Osceola County Firefighter - 29.5 days off per year plus a 25 year FRS retirement and Incentive pay converted to hourly rate! this is what competitive looks like! If the Chiefs did more research on what it takes to actually be competitive our members wouldn’t be leaving for other departments. Maybe a little less time, money, and effort should be spent on that Accreditation and more done to retain employees. Although retaining employees doesn’t get added to a Chief’s resume, so maybe that’s why it’s less important than Accreditation?

10/04/2023

So the Fire Chief does recognize the need for more personnel, apparatus, and stations??? Our Union Leaders brought an 80+ page comprehensive Workload/GIS study to him just over 2 years ago and he told our Leadership that he didn’t believe the facts presented to him. Now 2+ years later he’s admitting that to . Unfortunately the Fire Chief should have listened when our Leadership gave him the data.

As a result of poor planning and the unwillingness to work with our Union Leadership, the Kissimmee Fire Dept is struggling to keep experienced firefighters, response times are over 11 mins in some area, and workload keeps getting higher for our members. The 5th station has been in the planning phase for almost 2 years with almost no progress. And that 6th station he referenced is years away based on current plans and hasn’t even begun the planning phase for it.

Meanwhile, the Kissimmee Professional Firefighters continue to take care of calls for service in spite of being busier than most Central Florida Fire Departments and not being even remotely competitive with pay, amount of work hours, or retirement.

https://www.wesh.com/article/kissimmee-to-charge-developers-public-safety-impact-fees/453294940

.fetzer1

09/27/2023

Take a look at all of these Fire Departments who have been awarded SAFER and AFG Grant funds this year! Also, take a look and you’ll notice the and the department didn’t get any money. Why you may be asking when they constantly tell our members they have no money? It’s simple, our Chiefs are not putting in the grant requests. For Chiefs who claim to be doing everything they can to fix the ongoing issues our members are facing why do they not put in for FREE grant money??? Maybe it’s because the accreditation process hasn’t told them to fill out grant requests, since accreditation is the primary focus out the chiefs.

It’s time the commissioners of this City ask the hard questions and find out why this department continues to pay tens of thousands of dollars towards accreditation instead of simply putting in for free grant money that could be used to fix the problems not just kick them down the road. The Citizens deserve to know!

.fetzer1

09/22/2023

One of our Chiefs told our members that he feels sorry for our members because he is on the City’s Negotiating Team and he has a Master’s degree so it’s not fair for our members because our Negotiating Team only has Associates and Bachelors degrees.

This is the nonsense that is occurring while our members are fighting for competitive pay, competitive time-off and competitive retirement. Our members are trying to negotiate for better compensation so the can get qualified candidates to apply since we are losing more members to other Fire Departments. (5 current vacancies and 3+ more on the way)

Does the City Commission agree that we are less because we don’t have Master’s degrees?

09/20/2023

FF Farmer begin with Kissimmee Fire 1.5 years ago. He has left Kissimmee Fire to go just a few miles down the road to St. Cloud Fire where he can get more money, better benefits, a much better retirement, and a smaller workload for those things.

There are now 5 active vacancies and the new engine that was supposed to be staffed after October 1st is farther away as a result.

Competitive pay, Competitive Benefits, Competitive Time-Off, and a Competitive Retirement are a must for our members. Because the City of Kissimmee and our Chiefs have chosen not to provide these things, there is another vacancy.

It’s time that the City Commissioners tell City Leaders to take the necessary steps to make the Kissimmee Fire Department a competitive department. Instead of spending money and resources on Accreditation, our Commissioners need to tell our Chiefs to fix the problems.

It’s time to fix the issues!

.fetzer1

Address

Kissimmee, FL
34741-34747, 34758-34759

Website

http://www.iafflocal4208.org/

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