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Tag: pay

Opinion: Federal wildland firefighters should be paid at least as much as cafeteria workers

Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories UncategorizedTags , 22 Comments on Opinion: Federal wildland firefighters should be paid at least as much as cafeteria workers

The President raised the minimum wage for Federal contractors to $15/hour, which is more than the starting pay for Federal wildland firefighters

Cedar Fire Elko Nevada July 19 wildfire
Firefighters hold a road on the Cedar Fire in Nevada, July 20, 2020. Photo: Mike McMillan/BLM Elko District.

The President signed an Executive Order yesterday requiring Federal contractors to pay a $15 minimum wage to hundreds of thousands of workers who are on Federal contracts.

From a statement issued by the White House:

These workers are critical to the functioning of the Federal government: from cleaning professionals and maintenance workers who ensure Federal employees have safe and clean places to work, to nursing assistants who care for the nation’s veterans, to cafeteria and other food service workers who ensure military members have healthy and nutritious food to eat, to laborers who build and repair Federal infrastructure.

“I believe no one should work full-time and still live in poverty,” President Joe Biden said in a Twitter post announcing the move.

Raising the minimum wage to $15 for all workers in the United States is long past overdue. The last time it was changed was 13 years ago when it increased from $5.15 per hour to the current rate of $7.25 per hour.

The cleaning professionals and cafeteria workers mentioned in the statement from the White House as examples of Federal contractors who will be covered by the new minimum wage need this new policy. It is extremely difficult to support a family while making less. If they receive a bump in pay when the policy goes into effect January 30, 2022, that’s great for them. And the pay will be adjusted annually based on the percentage increase in the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers.

But let us consider who will not be receiving the minimum pay of $15 an hour — Federal wildland firefighters, roughly 15,000 employees who work under the ridiculous titles of Forestry or Range Technician. Most of them start at the GS-3 level which this year is $13.45 an hour. Many of them will remain a GS-3 for years. When they become a highly skilled firefighter a few years later they might be promoted to a GS-4 making $15.20 an hour, which is less than the starting pay at some McDonald’s outlets.

McDonalds Hiring, $15.50 per hour
From the Sisters, Oregon McDonalds Facebook page, April 22, 2021.

The only way these professional firefighters can even begin to support a family is to work 1,000 hours of overtime each year. This is a physically and emotionally demanding job. Shifts on a going fire are typically 14 to 16 hours leaving only 8 to 10 hours each day when they are off the clock, which is not enough time to rest, recuperate, and take care of personal needs.

Federal wildland firefighters travel across the country going state to state wherever the fires are. When the largest blazes need 5,000 personnel, they may be staffed with individuals from nearly every U.S. state. Being away from home and family for extended periods of time every year puts stresses on the firefighters and their households.

Our opinion

Federal wildland firefighters need to be paid at least as much as cafeteria workers. Men and women defending our country by suppressing fires are grossly underpaid and deserve a large boost in salary. This could slow down the hordes that are quitting to seek a living wage, moving to city, state, and private organizations. Their pay needs to be competitive and commensurate with wages that could be earned doing the same job with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE) and Pacific Gas and Electric.

Pay for entry level temporary employees, CAL FIRE and Federal wildland firefighters
Pay for entry level temporary employees, CAL FIRE and Federal wildland firefighters. From Grassroots Wildland Firefighters.

Last week the McDonalds in Sisters, Oregon was seeking new employees, offering starting pay of $15.50 to $18.25 and a hiring bonus of $1,000.

These extraordinary employees also need to be reclassified correctly as actual Firefighters, not forestry technicians.

Some efforts are underway, such as the request by nine U.S. Senators for the Government Accountability Office to conduct an assessment of hiring and retention of Federal wildland firefighters at the five Federal agencies responsible for wildland fire.

Tomorrow, April 29 at 1 p.m. EDT, the House Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests, and Public Lands, led by Chair Joe Neguse (D-Colo.), will host an oversight hearing titled Wildfire in a Warming World: Opportunities to Improve Community Collaboration, Climate Resilience, and Workforce Capacity. Riva Duncan, now retired from the Fire Staff Officer position on the Umpqua National Forest in Oregon, is scheduled to testify. This could be interesting. You can watch it live, or replay it later.

The video below is the daily White House Press Briefing from April 27, 2021. The first item covered by White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki is the Executive Order about the new minimum wage for contractors.

Senators ask GAO to assess hiring and retention of federal wildland firefighters

Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories UncategorizedTags , , 23 Comments on Senators ask GAO to assess hiring and retention of federal wildland firefighters

Nine Senators signed letter asking how to strengthen the federal firefighting workforce

Briefing on Springs Fire
Firefighters gather for a briefing on the Springs Fire on the Boise National Forest near Banks, Idaho, August 12, 2020. Kari Greer photo for U.S. Forest Service.

Nine U.S. Senators signed a letter requesting that the Government Accountability Office (GAO) conduct an assessment of hiring and retention of federal wildland firefighters at the five federal agencies responsible for wildland fire. Those agencies are:

  • Forest Service
  • Bureau of Indian Affairs
  • Bureau of Land Management
  • Fish and Wildlife Service
  • National Park Service

The Senators, almost 10 percent of all Senators, asked that the GAO make recommendations for how these agencies can improve wildfire prevention and suppression efforts by strengthening the federal firefighting workforce.

Excerpts from the letter:

Wildfires in the West are now a near-constant threat and we can no longer afford to rely on just a seasonal firefighting workforce. Transitioning to a larger, full-time workforce would add immediate capacity to fight wildfires nationwide, allow for greater flexibility in shifting personnel between regions depending on wildfire activity, provide more stable work opportunities and employee benefits, increase employee retention, and reduce agency costs and burdens associated with the seasonal hiring process.

[…]

Assess whether OPM should create a new, separate job series and pay scale for federal wildland firefighters to ensure their pay is commensurate with state firefighting agencies and reflects their training requirements and the hazardous conditions they must endure.

The Grassroots Wildland Firefighters had some input into this effort. This is a rapidly growing organization that is becoming a factor in implementing changes that could benefit Forestry and Range Technicians whose primary job is fighting wildland fires.

This is the organization’s mission:

The Grassroots Wildland Firefighter Committee is dedicated to promoting and advocating for Federal Wildland Fire personnel titled Forestry Technicians and Range Technicians. Our mission is to advocate for proper classification, pay, benefits and comprehensive well being. Our mission is to educate the public, generate support and provide solutions to our federal representatives through policy reform.

The three-page letter written by the Senators is below. To scroll to the additional pages, click on or hover your mouse over the document then click on the down arrow at bottom-left.

[pdf-embedder url=”https://wildfiretoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Letter-to-GAO-Federal-Firefighting-Workforce.pdf” title=”Letter to GAO – Federal Firefighting Workforce”]

Opinion: A USFS firefighter in Oregon can be paid more at McDonald’s

Author BillPosted on Categories UncategorizedTags , , , 23 Comments on Opinion: A USFS firefighter in Oregon can be paid more at McDonald’s

A view from under a smokejumper canopy

Boise BLM smokejumpers
Boise BLM smokejumpers. BLM photo by Carrie Bilbao July 28, 2020.

(This article first appeared at The Oregonian)

By Ben Elkind

I would almost do it for free. The feeling of complete focus and calm after jumping out of the airplane is hard to find elsewhere these days. But the chaos from life and the fire below are making me rethink my career, and that’s a big problem for Oregonians.

I’ve been a smokejumper for the US Forest Service for eight years and worked on the Mt. Hood Hotshot Fire Crew before that. I grew up in Oregon and can’t stand to see the wildfires ravaging our public lands and communities, while the smoke threatens our public health.

The Forest Service employs the largest firefighting force in the west, yet the agency refuses to rise to the challenge of climate change and the growing demand that increased fires, short-staffing and low pay presents for our workforce.

Vacancies throughout the west limit our firefighting ability. Fire engines sit idle and unstaffed in many parts of our state, and the number of “Type-II” incident management teams – charged with managing large fires around the northwest – has decreased from ten to seven since 2014. The teams that remain are short-staffed and spread thin. This is the obvious outcome in a profession that I’ve never heard anyone recommend to their children.

As the cost of living and home prices rise in the west, the Forest Service can no longer retain its employees when starting pay is $13.45 an hour. At the Lincoln City McDonald’s, just west of Otis, another community nearly erased from the map by wildfires, a sign in the window advertised starting pay is $15 an hour. My wife joked that I should apply there for more job security. She’s right. A career with McDonald’s is currently more promising than federal wildland firefighting.

I’m an incident commander with advanced qualifications, supervising dozens of resources and fire crews on fires, yet I’ve never earned more than $20 an hour in my 14 years as a professional wildland firefighter. I make decisions that can cost millions of dollars with lives hanging in the balance, yet I am paid more like a teenager working a summer job than a highly experienced professional. Last summer, I trained someone from Seattle Fire who earned more in two weeks than I earned in a 6-month fire season.

The cost of paying living wages to our firefighters pales by comparison with the costs that devastating wildfires have on our state. The costs in Oregon from the 2020 fires alone are in the billions of dollars, and that doesn’t include the mental toll it took on our citizens. My pregnant wife was home with our toddler duct-taping paper towels on a fan to try to filter the smoke, while I was working on the fire that would burn from Warm Springs past Detroit and toward Portland.

I’ve personally seen the experience level drop rapidly on fires over the past decade as people find work that is more predictable and safer, and affords them a better work/life balance. This leads to higher fire costs simply because we aren’t as experienced at fighting fire as we used to be. When training costs are so high, retention is paramount to fiscal responsibility.

Prescribed burns and hazardous fuels reduction are buzzwords politicians and media use, but the reality is that there aren’t people willing to take on that dangerous job anymore at $13.45 an hour. The limiting factor is staffing.

Fire season in 2021 is now underway in the drought-stricken western U.S., yet there have been no policy changes at the firefighting level, or legislatively.

Talking about wildfires, climate change, prescribed burning is great. But our citizens and firefighting workforce demand action. I ask for your help, to demand a better investment of our money, and to preserve what parts of Oregon we have left for future generations.

Smokejumpers
Smokejumpers. BLM photo.

Ben Elkind is a smokejumper for the U.S. Forest Service based out of Redmond.

BLM recruitment video says you will “have the time of your life”

Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories UncategorizedTags , , 15 Comments on BLM recruitment video says you will “have the time of your life”

Advertises jobs as “firefighter”, which is not accurate

3:30 p.m. MDT April 7, 2021

BLM firefighter recruitment

The Bureau of Land Management released yesterday a two-minute video that supposedly answers questions, including, “Should I apply to be a wildland firefighter with the BLM?” This is at best, misleading, since most if not all of their employees that do fight fire work under job titles of “Forestry Technician” or “Range Technician”.

Besides the “Should I apply” question, the video addresses others, such as:

  • “I don’t know, it seems kind of boring. And not fun at all.
  • “What if I get dirty?
  • “What would I do in my free time?”

Our take

The federal land management agencies that hire employees with a primary function of fighting fire put most of them in positions with job titles of Forestry Technician or Range Technician. It is deceptive advertising to publish documents or videos stating that you can be a “firefighter” with their agency.

The Federal Trade Commission Act prohibits advertising that is likely to mislead consumers and affect consumers’ behavior or decisions about the product or service.

If an advertiser under the Federal Trade Commission’s jurisdiction is advertising a product that does not comply with the law, violators could face enforcement actions or civil lawsuits with fines up to $43,792 per violation, or civil penalties up to $40,654 per violation.

In the case of the BLM encouraging the public to apply for firefighting jobs, the solution is to do the morally and ethically right thing — accurately describe the positions these employees would be working under. In the longer term, change their job descriptions from Range or Forestry Technicians, to Firefighter.

And, let them earn a living wage that is commensurate with the work they do, and is competitive in the firefighting community.

We have reached out to the BLM about this issue. If we hear back, we will update this article.

California politicians call for larger, year-round work force for wildland fires

Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories UncategorizedTags , 7 Comments on California politicians call for larger, year-round work force for wildland fires

They want to reclassify more seasonal federal firefighter positions as permanent

Elkhorn Fire California
Elkhorn Fire on the Shasta-Trinity National Forest in northern California, September 15, 2020. Photo by Mike McMillan.

A group of 23 United States Senators and Representatives signed a letter Wednesday urging the Biden administration to transition to a year-round federal firefighting workforce.

Senators Dianne Feinstein and Alex Padilla and Representatives Zoe Lofgren, Scott Peters and Jimmy Panetta initiated the effort along with Representatives Julia Brownley, Salud Carbajal, Jim Costa, Mark DeSaulnier, Anna G. Eshoo, John Garamendi, Jared Huffman, Sara Jacobs, Barbara Lee, Ted W. Lieu, Alan Lowenthal, Jerry McNerney, Grace F. Napolitano, Adam B. Schiff, Brad Sherman, Eric Swalwell, Juan Vargas and Pete Aguilar — all from California.

While all of the signatories were from California, the message does not specify that a change in the workforce would only apply to that state.

The full text of the letter sent to the Secretaries of Agriculture and Interior is below:

March 29, 2021

We write to you today to request that your agencies transition to a year round wildland fire workforce, which should include reclassifying more seasonal federal firefighter positions as permanent positions. We ask that you let us know if you need additional resources to fulfill this request.

As California and the West continue to contend with historic and destructive wildfire seasons, it has become clear that we are entering a “new normal” in which increasingly intense wildfires wreak havoc during a nearly year-round fire season. Last year, California had over 9,900 wildfires, which burned a record-setting 4.25 million acres, killed 33 people, and destroyed nearly 10,500 homes and structures. And this year, we are already well above average for both the number of fires and acres burned. Because the federal government owns 57% of the forest land in California, and climate change all but ensures an ever-expanding fire season in the years to come, we must begin to adapt our federal resources to better align with needs on the ground.

Transitioning to a larger, full-time workforce would add immediate capacity to fight wildfires and conduct prevention work nationwide, allow for greater flexibility in shifting personnel between regions when needed, support increased staff capacity to perform actions outside of the fire season that reduce fire risk, provide more stable work opportunities and employee benefits, increase employee retention, and reduce agency costs and burdens associated with the seasonal hiring process.

We appreciate your attention to our request, and stand ready to help however we can.

Wildland firefighter organization seeks better pay and benefits

Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories UncategorizedTags , 23 Comments on Wildland firefighter organization seeks better pay and benefits

Grassroots Wildland Firefighters hopes to influence federal legislation

Britania Mountain Fire Wyoming
Firefighters conduct a firing operation to remove the fuel along Palmer Canyon Road on the Britania Mountain Fire in Wyoming. Uploaded to InciWeb September 2, 2018.

Wildland firefighters have formed a non-profit 501(c)(4) organization to advocate for better pay, benefits, a National Fire Service, and their own job series within the federal government.

The IRS rules for a 501(c)(4) allow a “social welfare” non-profit group to spend their donated funds to lobby government in order to affect legislation, but they are not allowed to participate in political campaigns on behalf of a candidate for public office.

The name of the all-volunteer group is Grassroots Wildland Firefighters (GRWFF). It was formed in 2019 by active and retired federal wildland firefighters (Forestry Technicians) and continued to grow after a series of articles were published beginning in August, 2020 that called attention to their plight on Wildfire Today, Vice News, and NBC.

Below are excerpts from a news release by the GRWFF.

Kelly Martin, the group’s President and former Fire and Aviation Chief for Yosemite National Park, describes the major issue at hand: “We are at a turning point in the climate change battle, and the demands on federal wildland firefighters at the frontline have become a year-round request. Firefighters are resigning their federal positions for jobs in state, municipal and private industry that provide pay and benefits commensurate with the risks”.

Grassroots Wildland FirefightersIn many places where the government asks firefighters to serve, both in cities and remote duty stations, pay falls woefully short of basic housing and cost of living requirements.

Government studies from the National Library of Medicine reveal that federal firefighters face a multitude of health risks, with an up to 30% increased risk of cardiovascular disease and a risk of lung cancer exceeding that of the general population by as much as 43%. The ever-increasing duration and intensity of fire seasons have also led to devastating mental health statistics, which show a 30 times higher suicide rate among firefighters in comparison to the general public.

GRWFF spokesperson Riva Duncan sums it up, “In short, the pay and benefits are not commensurate with the risk, and the risk has increased fire season after fire season. The 2021 fire season is here, and nothing has changed. Grassroots Wildland Firefighters aims to do what the boots on the ground have always done in the absence of a solution, we offer one. With the input of firefighters across the country, we’ve developed a legislative proposal that aims to stem the tide of federal firefighters leaving our ranks and to create pay and benefits parity with state, municipal and private firefighting organizations. We’re working with members of congress who prioritize environmental and first responder issues to fine-tune the language, and we hope to have a sponsor and introduction soon.”