Fire union seeks seven new members, new equipment
Council passes resolution urging mayor to hire more members
BY TOM CAIAZZA
Staff Writer

EDISON - Firefighters spoke out at the April 11 Township Council meeting calling on Mayor Jun Choi to address safety issues within the department.

Members of the Edison Fire Fighter's union Local 1197 called on the mayor to spend money that has been put into the budget to hire seven firefighters and make upgrades to the equipment used by the department, which they claim has been in decline for several years.

Union President Robert Yackel said the replacement of seven firefighters would add to the effectiveness of the department.

"It doesn't sound like a lot, but it is to the men at 3 in the morning," Yackel said. "We have had some very serious safety issues for the last 14 months."

Yackel said that the department is currently "way below" the national standards for manpower and the replacement of these seven firefighters was "very important to us."

The firefighter's union is also calling on the mayor to update and in some cases outright repair certain critical equipment problems that have been occuring.

According to a release from the union, the current dispatch system which gives firefighters and emergency operators information about an emergency has become difficult to use.

They claim the system garbles voices through the system's speakers, making it difficult to distinguish between issues and locations where problems are occurring.

Similarly, the system that prints out the information being reported has not been in operation for months, according to the union.

Yackel said that several of the fire stations are in various levels of disrepair citing the need in some cases to call the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to come in before anything is done to remedy problems.

Yackel said fire trucks are breaking down and are without replacements, with each problem they have, the departments resources for public safety are diminished.

"We're at bare bones ...," Yackel said.

The department was recently awarded $1.7 million in capital improvement funds to buy three new fire trucks, the purchase of two are expected to be expedited and in the department's hands within the next few months, according to acting Fire Chief Norman Jensen.

The Township Council unanimously passed a resolution urging the mayor to make the necessary additions to the fire department. The 2007 budget contains funds to hire these firefighters as well as added police officers.

"I think it's terrible that the administration is not following through," said Councilman Salvatore Pizzi. "The money is there, the need is their, get on the stick."

Councilman Robert Diehl said the township should be able to fix some of the simple things the department is complaining about, especially the conditions in the firehouses, which the department has offered to fix themselves if the township would give them the resources to do so.

Some of the problems in the station houses, according to the union president, include leaking roofs causing molded ceiling tiles and other repairable issues.

Yackel defended the department's motivation saying that the union is not taking issue with these problems now due to the contract negotiations currently under way with the township.

Yackel said the contract negotiations are in the hands of a mediator and the union will accept whatever deal the mediator offers. Calling for the problems to be addressed do not have anything to do with the outcome of that process.

Howard Dill, the special projects manager for the administration, said that the poor conditions in the department were not something that happened in just the last 15 months.

"We are aware and willing to work on it," Dill said.

Chief Jensen said that the infrastructure apparatus in the township are "a mess" and that the funds allocated by the council are a start in the right direction.

"We're going to spend that money and we're going to come back for more," Jensen said.

Jensen agreed with the union's accusations.

"Yea, these things are true," Jensen said. "One hundred percent correct. I concur completely. I don't want them [the firefighters] living ... working in the conditions they are working in. I am more than willing to work with all the members to get out of this mess."

Jerry Barca, a spokesman for the mayor, said the neglect of the buildings did not happen in the last 15 months but in the 12 years before that. He cited the capital improvement allocation of $1.7 million as proof the mayor is interested remedying the situation and that the union's actions were "politicizing" the issue.

"It's unfortunate that during union contract negotiations," Barca said, "the fire union chose to politicize this."

Barca also said that over the last five years, the amount of firefighters in the department has fluctuated little, staying in the mid-40s to the low 50s each year.