Executive Board Focus Areas

Members of our executive board have focus areas to improve our workplace and the position of our union. Focus areas include member relations, public relations, management liaison, public information, and union support. If you're interested in helping with any of the Executive Board's focus area's, reach out to any of the union reps to be put in contact with the correct point of contact. 

Committees

The UPFFA both have committees at the state level, which meet periodically. Committees enable the union membership to develop specialized knowledge on issues like Health & Safety, Strategic Communication, Legislative and Political Action, Labor Relations, and Education & Fundraising. We can also form committees at the local level, or in conjunction with other IAFF locals. If this is something that interests you, please reach out to the President. 

Protected Conversation

The easiest way to get involved is to participate in conversation with your union reps! According to the National Labor Relations Board, members:

 "have the right to act with co-workers to address work-related issues in many ways. Examples include: talking with one or more co-workers about your wages and benefits or other working conditions, circulating a petition asking for better hours, participating in a concerted refusal to work in unsafe conditions, openly talking about your pay and benefits, and joining with co-workers to talk directly to your employer, to a government agency, or to the media about problems in your workplace. Your employer cannot discharge, discipline, or threaten you for, or coercively question you about, this "protected concerted" activity. A single employee may also engage in protected concerted activity if he or she is acting on the authority of other employees, bringing group complaints to the employer's attention, trying to induce group action, or seeking to prepare for group action. However, you can lose protection by saying or doing something egregiously offensive or knowingly and maliciously false, or by publicly disparaging your employer's products or services without relating your complaints to any labor controversy. "

Depending on the circumstances, those protections can extend to employees’ distribution of union literature or posting of union signs in non-work areas during non-work time as well as to wearing union buttons and clothing bearing union insignia on work time. 

Union Store & Community Engagement

The local has set up a union store where we sell merchandise to fund our community engagement projects. Sometimes, other locals and organizations will ask us for help with their projects, and we love to volunteer! Friends and family are welcome to join!