A Friend, Not a Firebrand : Boss of L.B. Firefighters’ Union Earns Points for Soft-Spoken Persuasion

The lanky union boss jerked his thumb in the direction of a bronze plate bearing his name on the front of the Central Fire Station.

“See the plaque,” grinned Harold Omel Jr. “There might be stations dedicated to fire chiefs, but I’ll bet there are very few dedicated to union presidents.”

That the City Council would so honor Omel, purposely boosting the labor leader’s stock, may seem curious. Labor and management, after all, are traditional rivals.

But the fire station dedication two months ago reflects accurately Omel’s personal and professional standing among public officials here.

As president of the 415-member Long Beach Firefighters Local 372 for 13 years, he has led a highly visible force that participates heavily in City Council campaigns and--according to leaders of other city unions--is the union most influential in municipal government.

To stress Omel’s political acumen, however, may be to miss an important part of the man, said several associates.

“If you look at Harold, you’ll see he’s a lot more than a union boss,” said Mike Kunst, president of the Long Beach Police Officers Assn. “No. 1, he’s a dedicated city employee. He was born and raised here, he was educated here. And now he’s involved in the community.”

In fact, Omel will be honored May 22 as Los Angeles County’s top firefighter primarily because of his extracurricular activities, said Fire Chief Ben Souders. “I nominated Harold not on the basis of what he has done as a firefighter but on what he has done for the community. I didn’t even mention his work as union president.”

Aside from his community involvement and inherent union power, the soft-spoken 42-year-old Omel is a persuasive force to be reckoned with, city officials said.

“I have never seen anyone who can move around as gracefully in civic affairs as Harold Omel,” said Mayor Ernie Kell. “He’s smooth. He doesn’t come on strong with arm-twisting. In fact, he does it so smoothly you don’t even know you’re being lobbied.”

Because he is organized, knowledgeable and affable, Omel would make a good councilman, said Kell and others. Even Tom Clark, in whose 4th District Omel would run, said he supported that notion.

Still, it is as a union leader that Omel seems most powerful.

“We can put 75 people in a neighborhood for a candidate on a given weekend,” Omel said. And, with council members elected by district since 1976, that manpower can help decide a race.

For example, Omel said firefighters, dressed in identifying caps and blessed with a white-knight image, “blitzed” neighborhoods in support of Edd Tuttle and Marc Wilder when they routed council incumbents in 1978.

The union also budgets about $6,500 a year for political campaigns and often donates $1,000 or more to a candidate in each race, said Omel. It has contributed at one time or other to each of the city’s nine council members, but it unsuccessfully opposed then-Mayor Clark in 1980 and Warren Harwood in 1982. And it has stayed neutral in campaigns by longtime Councilwoman Eunice Sato, Omel said, because of opposition to her by the city’s other large unions, the City Employees Assn. and the police.

Indication of Ability

That both Clark and Harwood now praise Omel is an indication of his ability to mend political fences.

“When we endorsed (Russ) Rubley, I went to talk to Harwood,” Omel recalled. “I told him Rubley had always been a strong supporter, and we’d be fools not to support him. Harwood said he understood that.”

After Harwood won, the firefighters quickly donated $495 to pay some of his campaign debts. “Sometimes you’ve got to eat some crow,” said Omel.

“There were no wounds created,” Harwood said recently. “Omel was up front. This is a fellow who informs you, then trusts your good judgment. He is the best example of public employee leadership.”

For his part, Omel said that council members listen to him because they know him and trust him. “I don’t feel like they’re council persons--I consider them my personal friends,” he said.

Trustworthy Feeling

Several council members said they trusted Omel but stopped short of calling him a personal friend. Clark said of Omel’s statement: “It’s a good attitude. You get further with honey than with vinegar.”

Omel’s knack for public relations may be best shown by comments he makes to students in firefighter classes. “I tell them, ‘When you leave that (fire), make sure that citizens are happy. If they’re happy, then the councilman’s happy, which also helps your position at the bargaining table.’ ”

And Long Beach firefighters have gained good contracts, said Omel. They are among the top five in the state in wages and benefits, with an experienced firefighter receiving a base salary of $2,721 a month, plus plenty of voluntary overtime, he said. Firefighter contracts here are equal to those of police, although police officers are paid more than firefighters in many other California cities, Omel said.

Fireman Since 22

The son of a Long Beach firefighter, Omel was 22 when he joined the Long Beach force in 1964, four years after graduating from Millikan High School and two years after he married his wife, Patti, a former Wilson High student with whom he has two daughters.

He was named a director of the firefighters union in 1965, was president in 1972 at age 30 and has been reelected easily to the $500-a-month post ever since. He is a vice president of the state Firemen’s Assn. and was honored in 1982 for saving two lives while on duty.

During those two decades, Omel has risen to the rank of captain and directs a four-man firefighting crew. He now hopes his scores on Civil Service examinations will lead to promotion to battalion chief. He would like to be fire chief one day, he said, but allowed that he could also see himself as a member of the City Council.

Local Groups Joined

Support for such a run might come from among the two dozen community groups or governmental committees he has joined since 1964. They range from Boy Scouts to Jaycees to Democratic Party committees to Grand Prix charities to a presidential commission on families.

But, for now, Omel’s reputation at City Hall comes from his success at the bargaining table. He is seen as innovative and something of a pacesetter, since negotiators for the police and city employee unions have in recent years adopted a similar low-key, non-confrontational approach to bargaining.

“(Omel) has brought a new style of leadership, and the unions in town are trying to use his example,” said Councilman Marc Wilder. “The fire union never appears afraid to try something new. He says, ‘We’re not sold on it but we’ll give it a try.’ That willingness to cooperate is appreciated and is very easy to deal with at the bargaining table. We know they’re a good-faith organization.”

Styles Compared

Several city officials compared Omel’s understated bargaining style with the more combative approaches of former leaders of the 624-member Police Officers Assn. and the City Employees Assn., which has 2,000 members and represents more than 3,000 workers.

Such comparisons and the fact that management has tried to use the firefighters’ early settlements to prod agreements from the other unions could be a source of problems. But the POA’s Kunst and the City Employees’ Walter Miller both said their unions have worked closely and well with Omel.

Kunst said the city has not been successful in using the firefighters’ contracts as “a club” against the other unions, even though the other unions usually settle for the same salary increases granted the fire union. In fact, in 1980, as local governments were cutting payrolls because of Proposition 13, the police used a no-layoffs provision in the firefighters’ contract to avoid firings at the Police Department. “So it mixes and matches depending on the circumstances,” Kunst said.

Effective Advocate

Both Kunst and Miller described Omel as an effective advocate for his union, but each said the firefighters gain from a public image that is second to no other group of public employees.

“Most everything a fireman does is viewed by the public as positive,” said Kunst, “while on the other hand, a lot of the things policemen do can be viewed by the public very negatively. State firefighters put up a billboard all over the state showing a fireman saving a little kid. The slogan under it was, ‘Firemen fight fires not people.’ The implication there is clear.”

But Miller said the firefighters’ good relationship with management is “probably at least half due to the specific skills and character of Mr. Omel himself.”

And Kell, who has received firefighter support since 1975, added, “Harold Omel is so well liked by the City Council and the community that it is difficult not to support him.”