75 County Firefighters Picket Howard’s Office : Labor: Angry union members demonstrate in Simi Valley over their employer’s offer of a 3.1% pay raise.

Angry Ventura County firefighters seeking better wages picketed Supervisor Vicky Howard’s office Thursday to protest the county’s latest 3.1% pay raise offer.

More than 75 off-duty, sign-carrying members of the Ventura County Professional Firefighters Assn. marched in front of Howard’s office at the East County Courthouse in Simi Valley--admittedly taking advantage of the press corps already stationed there for the trial in the Rodney King beating case.

Union President Ken Maffei said his members are preparing to picket Tuesday’s Board of Supervisors meeting in Ventura if the county does not make a better offer.

He declined to give specifics, but said union negotiators are seeking an offer closer to the 8.37% wage-and-benefit increase given to about 800 members of the 4,200-member Public Employees Assn. of Ventura County.

The county’s labor negotiators have been combative and unhelpful, he said.

“They have told us in negotiations that they have no problems with retention or recruitment in Ventura County, and if we don’t like it, we can go somewhere else,” Maffei said.

During the protest, several picketers yelled, “Come on out and talk to us, Vicky,” but Howard refused to talk to them when she appeared outside an hour later. Instead, she gave the picketers several cases of soda pop and talked to reporters.

Howard said she sympathizes with the 378-member union, which has been working without a contract since the last one expired Feb. 1.

“We have . . . a group of people who work very hard for the people of Ventura County--they do an outstanding job,” Howard said in an interview inside her office during the picketing. “I really want them treated fairly.”

She added, “But the thing we also face is the taxpayers and the rights of the taxpayers who are looking at their businesses going down the tubes, and looking at layoffs. It’s a question of how much they can afford.”

Howard refused to discuss the distance between the county’s pay offer and the union’s demand. But she said it is unfair for the firefighters to demand a bigger raise than most other county employees received.

Howard and Maffei agreed that one sore point at the bargaining table has been the plan to train firefighters how to operate 43 heart defibrillators, which the county has bought for a total of $250,000 so each fire company can help heart attack victims.

Maffei said the county offered to pay $1,250 per year to firefighters who receive the training and are prepared to use the machines.

But the union has demanded that those firefighters instead receive a 5% pay raise over and above any raise negotiated in the final contract because of the extra time and legal liability involved in doing such work, Maffei said.

Howard said she would like to see the issue severed from contract negotiations so the machines can be put in place and the firefighters trained to use them.

Maffei agreed, saying that while 60%-85% of all Fire Department calls involve medical emergencies, only about 1% of those involve heart attacks.

He said he would rather see the supervisors set up a full paramedic system in the Fire Department--an issue that is the subject of separate negotiations.

Besides wages, the firefighters have also asked for an increase in the 168 hours per year of paid time off allotted to the entire union so that some firefighters can perform official union duties.