Teamsters Ask that Cedar Falls IA Firefighters be Retained

CEDAR FALLS — The union representing police and public safety officers in Cedar Falls recently issued a proclamation supporting career firefighters.

But city officials note individual officers represented by the union fully support the public safety officer program.

On March 4, Teamsters Local 238’s executive board made the proclamation.

“Public safety officers should be utilized to supplement and enhance the fire department by working side by side with professional and career firefighters, not as their replacements,” it reads in part.

The proclamation came after the city voted at a special meeting Feb. 27 on a deal with Teamsters to allow PSOs to work 24-hour firefighting shifts, similar to firefighter scheduling.

“The proclamation was done by the executive board of Teamsters Local 238, and it was done in support of the firefighters and the firefighters union,” said Jon Thomas, Teamsters business agent.

He said the Teamsters believe career firefighters are needed to “guide and direct public safety officers at fire scenes.”

Jeff Olson, public safety director, noted police support the program.

“The police officers’ union supports the model. They have told us that, and they have voted twice to allow the process to move forward,” Olson said. “They’re not part of this proclamation.”

Scott Dix, Cedar Falls Fire Local 1366 president, wasn’t surprised by the proclamation.

“I think it confirms what we’ve told the citizens,” Dix said. “I don’t know if it’ll have any effect on the city whatsoever, but it helps our brotherhood.”

Attempts by the city and the firefighters — working with the Iowa Public Employment Relations Board — to create a labor-management committee have stalled, according to city emails.

Dix wanted meetings to be public, but the PERB representative said a public meeting wouldn’t be productive. For Dix, closed meetings are a nonstarter.

For Fire Chief John Bostwick, Dix is the problem.

“Every time (Dix) has changed the target on us for creating a labor-management committee,” Bostwick said. “In order for us to resolve some the challenges we’ve got going we really need to communicate between the fire union and between management. Without communication, it is very difficult to resolve some of the challenges we’ve got going.”

Dix blames the city.

“The city’s shown no interest whatsoever in this entire process at any point until they started getting political push back,” Dix said. “Other cities don’t have to have it public because other cities, their units actually work together. Their city isn’t trying to destroy the fire department — not trying to replace them — and actually work as a unit.”

Olson strongly disagrees.

“We’re actually making it better. We have more firefighters responding to a scene immediately and on callbacks, we’re having more people responding than we’ve ever had,” Olson said. “We’ve made a lot of improvements.”

The city has hired more PSOs to staff the fire station since nine firefighters have resigned or retired since September 2018. There are 16 full-time firefighters on the Cedar Falls Fire Rescue force. At least five have moved on to Urbandale Fire Department.

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