A lot of politicians talk about supporting public safety, but few people actually do it as well as City Councilor Melissa Lewandowski. Melissa has been one of the strongest voices on the Haverhill City Council for public safety, responsible growth, and transparency. For those reasons and many more we unanimously voted in June to endorse Melissa Lewandowski for Ward 4 City Council. We ask you to stand with us, your Haverhill Firefighters and vote for Melissa Lewandowski for Ward 4 City Council.
Today is the day! This Labor Day weekend, like every Labor Day weekend for decades, firefighters across the nation take the opportunity to raise money for a very meaningful cause, the Muscular Dystrophy Association!
Come by the Water Street Fire Station (Friday through Monday) and help us fill the boot or see us outside of one of the city’s Market Baskets (Friday & Saturday 9am-3pm) and help us fill the boot there. If neither of those work, good news, we have a QR Code and a website you can go to and directly help us fill our digital boot and raise money for this great cause!
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)
