Attached is the agenda for the Tuesday, 7 September 2010, general membership meeting.

The Professional Fire Fighters of Kitsap County, Local 2819, are hosting their second Father- Daughter Dance on Friday, September 24th, 2010 from 6:00 p.m. until 9:00 p.m at President's Hall at the Kitsap County Fairgrounds. This event will be open to the public and daughters of all ages are invited to attend with their fathers. Tickets are $12 per person and can be purchased from the website www.firefightersdance.org or in person at Silver City Brewery beginning September 11th from 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Portrait opportunities will be available with packages beginning at $5. All proceeds go to the Local 2819 Benevolent Fund.

 For additional information contact: www.tickets@iaff2819.org

Take a look at this video from the I.A.F.F. Convention www.iaffconvention2010.com/index.cfm?Section=10&pagenum=200 

FIREFIGHTER CANCER - YOUR HELP NEEDED
Portsmouth (NH) Firefighter Sarah Fox was diagnosed with breast cancer on October 9, 2007. She was also 36 ½ weeks pregnant with twins. Twelve hours later the twins were born making a family of seven. After several setbacks Sarah fought through the many challenges and treatments and beat the odds returning to work in January 2009. Just over a year later Sarah developed a pain in her hip which was discovered to be cancer. Sarah, her husband Matt and their 5 children and family are faced with the fight against cancer once again. As a gesture of our support for Sarah and to bring awareness to breast cancer Portsmouth Fire Fighters have developed a very cool decal that's personalized to show support of Sarah. Displaying the decal shows not only that we love and support Sarah but we support finding a cure for a disease that tears families apart. 

To purchase a decal go HERE: http://pffca.org/

THURSDAY, AUGUST 25, 2010
Coke cancels health care for striking workers

Coca-Cola Enterprises has taken action to punish 500 striking workers in Western Washington by canceling their health care benefits, even though the employees have already paid their share of their premiums through the end of August.

Coke employees, who went on strike on Monday over the Company’s refusal to bargain in good faith, reported the loss of their benefits after they had tried to fill prescriptions at local pharmacies and hospitals. One employee, who said he preferred not to be identified for fear of retaliation from the Company, said he faced an $8,000 medical bill for a prescription to treat a chronic, life-threatening illness.

“This further demonstrates Coke’s ruthless business model that puts corporate profits over the health and well-being of its own hardworking employees,” said Tracey A. Thompson, Secretary-Treasurer of Teamsters Local 117 and the lead negotiator for Washington Teamsters United. Striking Coke employees said they expected to have health care coverage at least through the end of August since the Company had already deducted the employees’ share of the premium for their medical plan.

Negotiations between Coke and Washington Teamsters United have been underway since April, but the company refused to bargain with the Union for over 10 weeks, and then began an aggressive campaign of unfair labor practices. The Union has filed charges against Coke for bad faith bargaining over the Company’s insistence on eliminating health care for retirees, reducing its employees’ health care benefit, and increasing the share of their employees’ health care premiums by 800%.

Pepsi and Safeway Beverage, the other large beverage companies in the area, negotiated contracts with the Teamsters this year that did not include huge health care premium increases or the elimination of retiree medical benefits.

In 2009, the Coca-Cola Company’s revenues were over $30 billion. The Coca-Cola Co. employs 92,800 worldwide. CCE’s revenues were over $21 billion. CCE employs 70,000 worldwide. Washington Teamsters United, which includes Teamsters Local Unions 38, 117, 174, 252, 313, and 589, represents approximately 500 Coke employees at six Western Washington area locations, in Bellevue, Marysville, Fife, Tacoma, Aberdeen and Bremerton.

Filmmakers Brenna Sanchez and Tom Putnam spent two 24-hour shifts with firefighters assigned to Engine 50 in Detroit. They want to make a documentary about the city and showcase firefighters as the storytellers.

Financial backers were concerned there wouldn't be enough dramatic footage to hold viewers' interest -- that there wouldn't be enough flames and, frankly, the documentary would be boring. So, they gave them a little money to make a movie trailer, a teaser of sorts, to see whether there really was a compelling story to be told. To view the trailer visit www.detroitfire.org.  For addtional details see attachment.      

Attention: Any Member With A Class A Uniform (and likes rodeos...)

You are invited / requested to attend the opening ceremony of the EXTREME BULLS event at the Kitsap County Fair grounds on AUGUST 29th at 1300 hrs.  This opening event will be telecast on ESPN and will feature Pierce County Pipes and Drums (featuring our own J. Hendryx), IAFF 2819's Honor Guard, fire service ladder trucks (L-1) raising the Amercian flag and hopefully LOTS of firefighters wearing CLASS A unifroms. 

Please arrive at 1230, so we can coordinate the people and entrance. There should be a reserved section so that you and a guest will be able to watch the Extreme Bulls after.

Please contact me with any questions.  bgreen@iaff2819.org  or by phone 360.731.1024


Thank You

Bill Green, Local 2819

Meet the billionaire brothers who are funding the Tea Party and waging a war against President Barack Obama. David and Charles Koch are longtime libertarians who believe in drastically lower personal and corporate taxes, minimal social services for the needy, and much less oversight of industry -- especially environmental regulation. Charles Lewis, the founder of the Center for Public Integrity, a nonpartisan watchdog group, says: "The Kochs are on a whole different level. There's no one else who has spent this much money. The sheer dimension of it is what sets them apart. They have a pattern of lawbreaking, political manipulation, and obfuscation. I've been in Washington since Watergate, and I've never seen anything like it. They are the Standard Oil of our times."

IAFF Announces 2010 Media Awards Contest Winners

August 18, 2010 -- Two hundred and forty-five entries in the 2010 Media Awards Contest attest to the fact that for today?s fire fighter, truth is stranger than fiction. People and animals, buildings and systems fail and endanger others in unique and largely unpredictable ways. A seemingly infinite series of natural and manmade catastrophes cause fire fighters everywhere to give their all, all day and all night. The Media Awards Contest honors communications, reporting and photography that best portray the professional and dangerous work of fire fighters and emergency medical personnel in the United States and Canada.

No. None of our entries won.

There were some interesting public relations projects. Take a look at the site (hyperlink above).