We hope you’re looking forward to the new year as much as we are!
Still Out of Contract
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.
Haverhill City Council Public Safety Subcommittee 5/3/2023
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 Denies Access to Fire Department Study Process
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)
Haverhill Firefighter Staffing Shortage
The current effort to increase Haverhill’s dangerously low firefighter staffing levels has been ongoing since 2019. Since that time, staffing levels have not increased at all. In fact, the proposed 2023 City of Haverhill budget reduces the number of guaranteed on-duty firefighters by removing them from the 911 Call center and not increasing the per-firetruck staffing (better known as “minimum manning” or per-piece staffing). The current daily compliment of on-duty firefighters is a minimum of 21, though Mayor James Fiorentini’s proposal reduces that number to 20. Under the mayor’s proposed 2023 budget, Haverhill will lose 4 firefighter positions per week unless the Haverhill City Council stands for a TRUE STAFFING increase.