Six full-time firefighters of the McCall Fire Protection District have unionized to ensure the district can maintain career employees.
"Our foremost concern remains the service of emergency response for the citizens of McCall," said Capt. Garrett de Jong, the president of the new chapter of the International Association of Firefighters.
Local 4564 organized last month when they met with a representative of the international union.
The results of the secret ballot were unanimous among the six full-time employees, said de Jong, who has been with the district for 2-1/2 years.
Other union members are Capt. Brandon Swain, Capt. Anna Martin and firefighters/advanced EMTs Freddie Van Middendorp, Joe Becker and Jeremy Olson "With what's happened in Valley County in the last couple of years, we are trying to be proactive to keep our people here," de Jong said.
He said that organizing the union would not harm the district's emergency response and firefighting ability. "It should make it better," he said.
The international union represents 285,000 firefighters in the U.S. and Canada.
The next step for the local union is to work on a collective bargaining agreement with the district's board of commissioners. He hopes negotiations will be completed by the end of the summer, he said.
Fire Chief Dave Sparks and fire district commission chair Bob Kirk declined to comment on the employees joining the union.
"Our motivation is not monetary; our concerns were we would have a stable workplace where standards and procedures are set beyond the tenures of our commissioners and chief," de Jong said. "So we want to get established, in case they step down."
The collective bargaining agreement will contain guarantees on wages, benefits, working conditions, and will outline disciplinary procedures so that they are "black and white," de Jong said.
The union does not allow its members to strike, de Jong said.
The district has four administrative personnel and about 30 volunteers that are not a part of the union.
The volunteers are not eligible for union membership, and the collective bargaining agreement would not apply to the volunteers.
The local members of the union will research departments in towns similar to McCall to come up with terms for its collective bargaining agreement.
"We want to find what works best for us, find out what our chief and our commission likes, and find a contract that we all can agree with by the end of summer," he said.
He said that the local union does not have any "serious" problems with wages, benefits, working conditions and disciplinary policy at the district at this time.
"What we foresee happening, is we could lose our commissioners," he said. "If two or three of them were to resign this year, we could have a whole new commission that redefines the department."
The members of the union will pay about $23 a month in dues to the state and international union.
