Commonality Between Unions and Volunteer Firefighters

The volunteers/first responders, why do we need to keep them? Lots of union members are volunteer firefighters/first responders. One reason why is that when the State, counties, and cities go broke, the volunteers will still be responding because they don’t do this work as their primary job. There is a commonality between volunteer firefighters and union, both under attack. For them it’s about community and what they can do to make things safer and better for their families, neighbors, citizens, and visitors within that area. It’s about being selfless in a time when being greedy is becoming more commonplace in this country. But the state and federal governments are making this volunteerism harder with the regulations and laws that make no exemptions for the volunteer first responders. These same laws for full-time first responders are the same for volunteers, and it is not done for safety, but to weed out the volunteer first responders. The way it is done is to put more costs and requirements on training of the volunteers for a type of job that has worked for the 60 years that I know of. Follow the Money: the manufacturers of all fire engines and clothing have people sitting on all the different safety boards that make the rules, like the 10 year rule on turnouts (fire safety clothes), helmets, and now the rule that says each volunteer must have two sets of turnouts at a cost of between $2,000 to $3,000 a set. The then SCBA (breathing apparatus) keeps getting add-ons which out dates the sets at a cost of $2,000 to $3,000 a piece. If you want to know why there are less volunteer first responders, just follow the money and rules changes and who benefits. The beneficiaries are more than you think. Consider a death of volunteers by a thousand cuts or regulations. But the old volunteers will still show up if we let them. And you will be damn glad to have them when you’re bleeding out or your house is on fire. This is why some of the best volunteers are working at union jobs and retired union workers who have good pensions and time on their hands to volunteer for their communities’ betterment.