Folks,
Greetings from the Burgh, where we are coming out with a special Payday newsletter on workers and the wildefire.
Tens of thousands of homes have been destroyed and the disaster is highlighting already present inequalities.
Incarcerated Firefighters Injured at 4x Rate of Professional Firefighters
In 2024, Los Angeles County residents voted to outlaw the use of prison labor as part of a failed statewide referendum. (Interestingly, in 2014, then California Attorney General Kamala Harris advocated for continuing to use incarcerated firefighters)
Now, over 1,000 incarcerated workers are battling the blaze in Southern California. Some make as little as $5-a-day.
An investigation by TIME Magazine shows that in the past incarcerated firefighters have been injured at nearly four times the rate of non-incarcerated firefighters. From TIME:
“More than 1,000 inmate firefighters required hospital care between June 2013 and August 2018, according to data obtained by TIME through FOIA requests. They are more than four times as likely, per capita, to incur object-induced injuries, such as cuts, bruises, dislocations and fractures, compared with professional firefighters working on the same fires. Inmates were also more than eight times as likely to be injured after inhaling smoke and particulates compared with other firefighters.”
For more, check out TIME Magazine.
Firefighters Union Laments For-Profit Firefighters in LA
This week, the Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD) Chief Kristin Crowley protested more than $17 million in budget cuts as a result of underfunding.
"We can no longer sustain where we are. We do not have enough firefighters," LAFD Kristin Crowley told CNN on Friday. "The $17 million budget cut and elimination of our civilian positions like our mechanics did, and has, and will continue to severely impact our ability to repair apparatus."
With state and local governments unable to provide adequate firefighters, many of LA’s rich have turned to private firefighters to battle the blazes. Firefighters unions have lamented the rise of private firefighters. From The Guardian:
“Mike Lopez, the secretary-treasurer of the California Professional Firefighters, which represents 35,000 firefighters across the state, “99.99% of them public workers”, questioned whether the training, experience and equipment of for-profit fire service employees were up to the standards of experienced public firefighters.
And at the scene of a fire, where communication is already a challenge, having services focused on protecting insurance customers working next to public firefighters risks creating “a magnificent debacle of hierarchies of command,” he argued.
“Just because you squirt water out of a hose, that doesn’t make you a firefighter,” Lopez said.
While the individual workers who show up to fight fires for private companies are probably “good guys” and “well-intentioned”, Lopez said, “I’d like to know how many of these private providers were in Altadena, in a lower-income neighborhood, providing these resources, versus in the Pacific Palisades and Malibu.”
The different salaries and benefits that firefighters receive for their dangerous work is also an issue. Among federal wildland firefighters in particular, low salaries have been a major concern in recent years, and as firefighters battle ever more dangerous blazes, they are still waiting for Congress to take action to make their salary raises permanent.
Federal firefighters, who were also deployed into Los Angeles last week, expressed concerns at how many of their colleagues have left the service, some lured into private work for better pay.”
For more, check out the Guardian.
Day Laborers Face ICE Raids as They Help Cleanup
Finally, the National Day Laborer Organizing Network (NDLON), has organized a fire relief brigade, providing volunteers to help families clean up following the firefighters. But while they help clean up after the fires, ICE continues to conduct raids throughout Southern California.
“Some politicians say that we are thieves, we are criminals, that we poison the blood of this country,” Manuel Vicent of NDLON, told the LA Times.
For more, check out the LA Times.
More News & Links
- California firefighters’ union: Trump should ‘be ashamed’ over threat to withhold firefighting aid
- In one of L.A.’s richest ZIP codes, food service workers also lost their homes
- Rental prices surges as landlords price gouge while workers rally to help each other
- California Republicans flee to Mar-a-Lago as LA burns
- SAG-AFTRA donates $1 Million for L.A. fires relief
- Starbucks union says company requiring baristas to work in LA stores near wildfires — even after one location destroyed.
- Finally, TikTok tells LA staff impacted by wildfires to use personal/sick hours if they can’t work from home
Alright folks, that’s all for today. Keep sending tips, story ideas, comments and complaints to melk@paydayreport.com
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Love & Solidarity,
Melk
