A bit about collective bargaining.

Around 1971, Greenville Fire Fighters all joined the International Association of Fire Fighters.  Soon we asked for and received the recognition as the bargaining agent for fire fighters in Greenville.  This came on the heals of two consecutive years with the city giving us a $1.00 a week raise and the cost of living raising substantially more than that.

Because we stuck to our guns and maintained our integrity, all city employees in Greenville enjoy a comparable wage to other municipal workers in our area and City enjoys a good relationship with it’s employees.  Gov. Kasich seeks to destroy that situation by the passage of Senate  Bill 5.  Make your voice heard.  Call, write or email your senator or representative in Columbus and tell them no on SB 5.

Don’t try to fix something that isn’t broken.

Engine 2 is now retired

 

Greenville’s good old engine has finally answered it’s last alarm.  For almost 40 years, Engine 2 served the citizens of Greenville.  It was built by Mack Trucks and delivered in 1972.  Soon after Mack stopped building fire trucks.  Many departments relied on this tough bunch of trucks including FDNY.   Columbus had  a number of tiller type ladder trucks built by Thibault and powered by Mack tractors. It’s a shame that such an American Company as Mack stopped building fire apparatus.  We were lucky in this area because of Harvey Hole Mack in Versailles being a local dealer and supporting us.  I’ll assemble some shots of Engine 2 and post them next.

Thoughts today

I've neglected this blog for a while with too many other things going on.  A lot has happened recently.  Greenville Fire has a new apparatus in service. Quint 2 replaces Engine 2 the grand old dame in service since 1972.  Engine 2 was the first out for around 30 years.  It was one of the last engines that Mack built entirely. Because Quint 2 was purchased with federal grant money one of the stipulations was that E-2 be retired from the fire service.  It is now stored at the City Garage and will soon be offered for sale.
Senate Bill 5 as proposed will limit collective bargaining by government workers at all level and do away with binding arbitration.  The governor says that this has strapped the local governments and should be abolished.  The most important thing to look at here is whether or not there will be something put in it's place so that employees have some option to deal with administrations, city councils and school boards.  We'll wait and see on this.