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FLINT TOWNSHIP, Mich. (WJRT) – As the days tick down until Christmas, Michigan firefighters are hoping for a gift from the state legislature.
Tuesday, the Michigan Professional Firefighters Union rallied on the steps of the capitol in support of House Bill 4688. The bill, which the union hopes will address dire staffing concerns, is currently awaiting a second reading in the House of Representative.
“Fire doesn’t know if you are a Republican, Democrat, or an Independent. If that unfortunate accident happens to you at your home or vehicle or anything like that there’s no politics there. We respond,” said Greg Weisbarth, the union’s 1st/3rd District Vice President.
The National Fire Protection Association recommends 100 firefighters for every 100,000 residents, a standard that Michigan is severely failing to meet.
In fact, Michigan has less than half the number of firefighters per resident than most bordering states. The state currently has 50 firefighters per 100,000 residents. At the same time, Ohio has 111, Indiana has 101, and Illinois has 102.
No one knows that better than Flint Township, which had to close last Friday due to “staffing and funding” according to MPFFU Local 1425.
“They have 11 guys. If they take a vacation day or they take a sick leave or they have an on the job injury, typically they’ve got to close their Station 1 in what’s referred to as being browned out because they do not have enough staffing,” Weisbarth said.
He adds that some Fire Departments are sending out 1 to 2 firefighters on an engine company, well below the 4 recommended by the NFPA.
“It’s just not safe,” he said. “Fires double in size every seven minutes. So, time is of the essence and not only the time, but to have the personnel on the scene in that short period of time in order to effectively put out the fires, do a rescue, whatever it maybe needs to be called.”
The legislation hopes to address the problem by making minimum staffing a mandatory bargaining topic between unions and local municipalities.
“Currently, staffing is called permissible subject of bargaining, which means if either party does not want to discuss it, it can’t be discussed at the table,” Weisbarth explained. “We’re asking for mandatory subject of bargaining that allows us to bring it up to the table to talk to our employers, our municipalities and townships. It forces no one to hire.”
Still, there are a dwindling number of days left before legislators are done for the year, and Democrats have a laundry list of items they would like to address before they lose control of the House.
Greg Weisbarth says this item needs to be one of them. Otherwise, they will have to wait for it to go through the entire process again after it’s reintroduced next session.
Plus, it will have the added hurdle of dealing with partisan gridlock as the two chambers won’t be controlled by the same party.
“It’s not going to happen overnight and we probably would be looking at least in my opinion a minimum of 3 years before this bill could ever be looked at again,” he said.
The State House of Representatives has 15 more days before they’re done for the year, and then House Republicans take over in January.