Reminder: The 2023 endorsement surveys are due by 8/31/2023.
The Haverhill Firefighter’s IAFF Local 1011 mission remains focused on keeping our neighbors and firefighters safe by exhibiting excellence in public safety. As part of that goal, our organization also represents Haverhill’s firefighters by endorsing candidates for office who understand this mission and support public safety.
What an endorsement from the Haverhill Firefighters means:
A vote for these candidates is a vote to support our hardworking firefighters so they can keep you safe. We support those who support our mission of keeping you safe.
If you are interested is seeking an endorsement from the Haverhill Firefighters, you can start that process here by completing our short survey…
The Haverhill Firefighter’s IAFF Local 1011 mission remains focused on keeping our neighbors and firefighters safe by exhibiting excellence in public safety. As part of that goal, our organization also represents Haverhill’s firefighters by endorsing candidates for office who understand this mission and support public safety.
What an endorsement from the Haverhill Firefighters means:
A vote for these candidates is a vote to support our hardworking firefighters so they can keep you safe. We support those who support our mission of keeping you safe.
If you are interested is seeking an endorsement from the Haverhill Firefighters, you can start that process here by completing our short survey…
We are very proud of what was accomplished in a short time working with Mayor Barrett and her bargaining team regarding this long-overdue contract negotiation she inherited from her predecessor.
We appreciate the timeliness and respect we received from the new office of the Mayor of Haverhill, something new to us and very much appreciated by our firefighters and our families. The collaborative effort, fair negotiation, and reasonable compromise between our two groups have been long sought after. Though it was a long wait—over 950 days—it was worth it in order to ensure our firefighters received a fair contract. For that, we are thankful to Mayor Melinda Barrett for the terms of this contract we were able to settle.
For their efforts in bargaining on behalf of the Haverhill Firefighters IAFF Local 1011, we would also like to personally thank the members of our Local 1011 Bargaining Committee: Christopher Link, Thomas Helps, Roger Moses, Robert Miles, John Farrell, Ryan Fairbanks, Corey Pond, and Tim Carroll, all led by Bargaining Chairperson Timothy Sullivan. Thank you!
We would also like thank the Professional Fire Fighters of Massachusetts (PFFM), the JLMC, Senior Staff Rep. for Labor Joseph Hubley, and last but not least Leah M Barrault and her great team at Barrault and Associates LLC.
The Haverhill Firefighters Local 1011 are grateful for a fair contract from the Barrett administration. Negotiating with Mayor Barrett was a breath of fresh air after being out of contract for over 900 days during the previous mayoral administration. We are sure that better days lie ahead working with Mayor Barrett and the current Haverhill City Council.
The Haverhill City Council Public Safety Subcommittee met last night to discuss the needs of the Haverhill Fire Department, the results of the CPSM Audit, and to hear recommendations from the public, firefighters, and Fire Chief O’Brien. Unfortunately, Fire Chief O’Brien was ordered by Mayor Fiorentini to not attend the meeting. The members of the subcommittee and firefighter’s union all expressed their disappointment with Mayor Fiorentini for his action in preventing the public from hearing directly from the city’s fire chief. The members of the subcommittee and firefighter’s union all expressed similar priorities for improving funding to the fire department in coming years. Please see the list of requests Local 1011 President Carroll presented to the city council subcommittee in accordance with the study (commissioned by the mayor) findings and in continuation with what the firefighters have been requesting for years to improve Haverhill public safety, all confirmed by the independent audit. (see more)
Haverhill Mayor Fiorentini announced today that the Haverhill Fire department will immediately begin transitioning away from a traditional human-based fire department model to a robotic one.
When the city leader was questioned on how these tank-like robots equipped with water cannons would replace all of the duties that a firefighter performs other than fighting fire, duties like; water rescues, fire rescues, motor vehicle accidents, overdoses, hazardous material incidents, shootings, CPR, stabbings, and the everyday picking-grandma-off-the-ground-after-she-fell incident the 2 decade mayor said that “these robots can shoot water at 2,500 gallons per minute, so I’m sure the dozens of highly-paid robot operators now on city payroll will figure it out”. Among many other concerns, when questioned on the cost of the robots, Fiorentini would only say that the devices will cost significantly less than it costs to hire a firefighter for a hundred years. According the the mayor’s and auditor’s office, the cost of a single Haverhill Firefighter over a hundred years costs the city roughly $30 million dollars each whereas “these robots use significantly less consumables like toilet paper that the city has to pay for while human firefighters are on duty”.
The statement today coming only weeks after another lost battle between the local 1011 and the mayor, when union staffing claims where vindicated using a study funded by the mayor intended to prove the firefighters wrong and backfired. Feeling as though that this event is more of a political one than a realistic solution, Haverhill Firefighter Local 1011 President Tim “Tim” Carroll only commented that “this doesn’t make any sense” while looking up momentarily from his union issued iPad which was streaming the popular early-2000s show BattleBots.
The 20 year mayor was also asked whether he had any other innovative ideas for reducing the number of city employees. He would not get into specifics but provided us with photos of prototypes being considered to replace Haverhill police officers and teachers, refusing to clarify which ones would be used where (pictured below).
When pressed for more information regarding this very strange turn of events, the long-time head of the city only kept repeating “I’m just getting started, I’m just getting started, I’m just getting started” over and over again before we were rushed out of his office by a group wearing Cyberdyne badges.
More on this and other Haverhill news and views below…
Haverhill Firefighters and the CPSM Study Presentation to City Council – 3/7/2023
Since early 2019, the Haverhill Firefighters have been working with several city leaders to try and improve our working conditions, our safety, and the safety of the public. Many of our concerns were also echoed by Fire Chief O’Brien, the city council, and the public. In 2022, Mayor Fiorentini ordered a study be conducted of the fire department in an attempt to refute firefighter claims that the fire department was not being properly funded, equipped, and staffed. Tuesday night, CPSM presented their findings and here they are in line with what the Haverhill Firefighters Local 1011 have been saying about the Haverhill fire department; that the HFD… (see more)
The actions of a failed mayoral administration, afraid to work on an even playing field.
CPSM Haverhill Fire Department Study, Delayed Final Report Release & Initial Response
The actions of a failed mayoral administration, afraid to work on an even playing field.
Mayor Fiorentini not only lied to the city council and firefighters but to the citizens he works for. The mayor told the firefighters and the city council that we would be included in the Haverhill Fire Department study and review process. The mayor and his office hid the existence of every draft report he received from the rest of the city leadership, the citizens of Haverhill, and the firefighters this study impacts. The mayor received these initial documents at least 2 months ago, the city council only received a report as of yesterday, the firefighters have still not been given a report by the mayor.
The final draft date on this fire department study was 11 December 2022, we are still working out the details on when the earlier initial draft was received and still hidden by the mayor. Nonetheless, the firefighters got their first look at the study results today, 2/7/2023 more than 8 weeks later. This was done deliberately by Fiorentini.
The firefighters requested the draft study results from the mayor as soon as we knew we it was available early last week and the mayor refused to give Local 1011 Firefighters President Tim Carroll any version, despite past promises. Instead, Mayor Fiorentini gave the study and “summary” rhetoric to Mike LaBella to print, unchallenged. The mayor refusing to send the study of our fire department to the firefighters or city council prior to getting his version to the paper tells you everything you need to know about this administration. The mayor giving the Haverhill Fire Department study with his skewed “summary” rhetoric to Mike LaBella and The Eagle-Tribune printing anything prior talking to the firefighters tells you what you need to know about their publication. Unfortunately, it seems that the Tribune continues to facilitate and enable these unethical actions by a contentious mayor by not pursuing actual journalism. By not reaching out to the city council, or the firefighters about their thoughts on the study while at the same time only caring to receive and print the opinion of a person who has spent their career eroding the fire department forces us to call the paper’s motives into question.
This is a mayor who is afraid of dealing honestly, if this study was his honest pursuit of knowledge regarding Haverhill and our fire department, the firefighters and the city council would have and should have been involved in the process, they were not. Fiorentini purposefully cut everyone else out. The mayor delaying a much-needed staffing increase and calling for a study last year was designed from day 1 to undermine the firefighters and our safety concerns. There is an obvious bias here and you need to know that. Once we’ve had a chance to review the study results ourselves, we’ll let you know.
Faithfully,
Your Haverhill Firefighters Local 1011
Please see the attached statement below (same as above)
A statement from the Haverhill Firefighters Executive Board denouncing the actions of Mayor Fiorentini and the Eagle Tribune
