Dennis RomeroWhile you were enjoying the holiday, L.A. city firefighters were ordered to work 12-hour shifts on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, the union representing those municipal workers says.
The United Firefighters of Los Angeles City (UFLAC) says that on Tuesday it filed an Unfair Employee Relations Practice report with the city's Employee Relations Board with regard to the order.
While the union is opposed to the extra-long shifts …
… it advised its members to do as they were told. The union's executive board states:
While we do not advise (at this time) that individual members refuse orders to report to work, we do urge in the strongest terms that members who feel that they have been improperly ordered to work beyond the hours for which they have been properly scheduled …
In the fall, the union filed a class action grievance over the city's policy of holding some firefighters past their shifts as a result of staffing shortages.
The board doesn't blame the LAFD's current leadership:
Credit: Mikey Wally/Flickr
Let's also keep in mind that our current Fire Chief inherited this mess, and is doing his best to work through with what he has. Many current Deputy Chiefs sat quietly on the sidelines when our Department was being decimated by our last Fire Chief who was proactively advocating for cuts, and ignoring UFLAC's plea to hire more Firefighters. They are the ones who created this mess.
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