The Aberdeen IAFF local has now succeeded in forcing the City of Westport to back out of its contract with Stafford Creek. According to what I have read, IAFF "bylaws" do not allow union members to "serve in non-union positions." I know for a fact that serveral IAFF members who work for the Aberdeen and Hoquiam Fire Departments are volunteers for the Montesano Fire Department, which is at least partially non-union, or for fire districts which are entirely non-union. I know that most if not all of these people get paid at least something when they respond to fires and ambulance calls. Why is it okay for them to do that if the South Beach Ambulance employees, who by the way are professional EMT's or Paramedics - not professional firefighters, are not allowed to volunteer with the Westport Fire Department. This is hypocrisy, pure and simple. I can't understand why the Daily World has failed to point this out.

Montesano didn't recently win a contract away from another large local entity. Allegedly.

Exactly. It all boils down to this: The union Aberdeen Firefighters are forcing other union members to refrain from doing something that is good for their own community, but bad for the Aberdeen Firefighters. The tail is wagging the dog.

There are no Aberdeen FD personnel who volunteer with Montesano. I know their chief and he confirmed that. They do have a couple of guys who used to volunteer with Monte, but the union forced them to quit when they got hired at AFD. Supposedly there's one of them that volunteer with an all volunteer department up in Thurston County, but that's a different situation. The bylaws simply say they can't volunteer with a department that's also represented by the IAFF (which would make them a "scab" in the union's eye) or that is in material competition with an IAFF department. There are, however, several Hoquiam personnel who volunteer with Montesano.

Regardless, Aberdeen's union wins, but I wonder if the loss of political capital is going to be worth it.

I haven't read their bylaws, but I have read the letter from the Regional IAFF representative, and he implies that the bylaws state that they cannot volunteer for a district or city that is not a union fire department. Period. Westport is not a union fire department. South Beach Ambulance, a separate entity, is union. When its employees volunteer with the Westport Fire Department, they are doing nothing different than what the Aberdeen and Hoquiam Firefighters are doing when they volunteer for a fire district or with Montesano, or Cosmopolis, or any other non-union department. And yet the IAFF is silent.

I think that's part of the problem. The IAFF gives each local the decision making ability on what constitutes a complaint. Hoquiam apparently doesn't care what their guys do when they're off duty. Hence the reason so many of them volunteer around the Harbor. Aberdeen, however, takes a pretty strict view on their people volunteering. They made their guys who volunteered at Monte quit and they also decided to enforce bylaws on neighboring Westport when they tried to take some business away from them. Their guy who volunteers in Thurston County apparently doesn't raise their ire because it's an entirely volunteer department.

As a former union shop steward, I actually side with the Aberdeen guys, at least in theory. Can you imagine what would happen if I went in to the PUD and said I wanted to work as a lineman for free? Or maybe if I was a PUD union lineman but I lived in Thurston County and decided I loved doing it so much I wanted to volunteer my time with Puget Power on the weekends. I would understand the unions in this scenario being pretty *issed off, and I would agree. That's nothing more than being a scab worker. I don't think the fire department should be much different when it comes to union issues, but the reality is a little bit different when it comes to public perception. The public expects public safety issues should supersede union issues.

I agree with you concerning your PUD hypothetical. The thing is, Westport Fire Department is an all volunteer fire department, just like the Thurston County fire district that you mentioned. The only difference is that four employees of South Beach Ambulance, who are members of the IAFF, volunteer for the Westport Fire Department. They are not volunteering as EMT's or Paramedics, which is what South Beach Ambulance pays them for. They are volunteering strictly as firefighters, and in that respect they are no more "professional" than any of the other volunteers who do not work at South Beach Ambulance. In order to prevent Westport from getting an additional $50,000 plus revenue, that it could sorely use, the Aberdeen IAFF local suddenly made an issue of the four South Beach Ambulance people volunteering for Westport. They didn't care before.

And this is a situation that taxpayers are always crying for - "cut down on expenditures.."

not really, I guess

I'd say once Westport FD accepts money to fight fires outside of town it becomes a "professional" department.

You will never get the union firefighters to agree to call volunteers "professional." Have you noticed those personalized license plates on vehicles with the IAFF logo on them, and the words "professional firefighter?" When they first came out a few volunteer firefighters obtained them and when the union found out they insisted that they be taken back.