Anthony L. Murray – President of the Professional Fire Fighters Union of Indiana presented Plymouth Professional Firefighters Local 5443 Thursday afternoon with their International Association of Fire Fighters, AFL-CIO, CLC Charter to recognize PFD’s Career Firefighters, Emergency Medical Technicians and Paramedics.
President Austin Bragg said that the charter will not change much regarding their relationship with the City of Plymouth. “Essentially there’s little to no change today. Our hope is – we’ve been blessed with a good partnership with the City – they provide us with good salaries, good benefits; there are a lot of people working on the behalf of the Fire Department along with the assistance of Chief Holm. Those discussions don’t really change much. Our hope is that over time we continue to find ways to give back to the community but also be able to bring information to the table when there are times when we are looking for new equipment, new salary, new benefits – we want to make sure that as Professional Firefighters we are at the forefront of that information. We want to get to the meetings that help us to understand what we should be looking out for and then to continue to be able to have a good line of communication with the City.”
He continued, “I know it’s kind of a feeling out process for everybody because a lot of people have a negative connotation when they hear ‘union’. Our union wasn’t formed out of malice. It wasn’t formed out of frustration. It was simply – a good time to unionize is when relationships are good.”
Bragg stated that they do not currently have a collective bargaining agreement and that the day to day operations of PFD aren’t expected to change much at this time.
This charter will provide an increased opportunity for more discussions between the PFD and the City of Plymouth in addition to Chief Holm’s attendance and advocacy at meetings. Bragg expects it to be a positive experience for the whole community as discussions will seek to pursue goals that are mutually beneficial to the PFD and the City of Plymouth.
The Charter was signed on August 9, 2023 and presented on September 28, 2023. Each charter member was presented with a commemorative challenge coin. Charter members are Austin Bragg, Jesus Garcia, Keegan Holland, Steve Holm, Christopher Todd, Michael Jernstrom, Chad Kinney, Zach Marquardt, Paul Mathewson, Daren Miller, Heath Neidig, Lisa Richards and Justyn Wade.
