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Desperate
plea from an Oak Lawn Firefighter
Dear Brothers and
Sisters of the fire service,
MY NAME is Walter O'Neil and I am
firefighter for the village of Oak
Lawn. Last Friday, April 11th,
myself and two
firefighter/paramedics were placed
on administrative leave, pending
being laid off. The new village
manager is proposing a budget that
will eliminate our jobs and those of
three others, but will be able to
hire three police officers and
establish a new gang unit. While
meeting with Larry Detjeen on
Friday, he made it clear to me that
this was in retaliation for my union
being unable to sign a new contract
with the village for over a year.
For those of you that maybe
unfamiliar with Oak Lawn, this is
the village that has novelty stop
signs below our normal stop signs.
Last year our village also spent
$500,000 on a photo-traffic
enforcement system that doesn't
function properly. The current
administration has mismanaged money
to such an extent that it has placed
my career, and the careers of my
fellow firefighters in jeopardy.
On a personal note, I am very proud
to say that I passed my probationary
one year period with an excellent
evaluation. I mention this because
it happened to me exactly three
hours before the chief told me that
I "was relieved from duty". I left a
great job as a Blue Island
firefighter to start all over again
as a probe in Oak Lawn. I did this
because I was born and raised in Oak
Lawn, and I have always considered
it home. My father was a firefighter
here for thirty-one years. My
grandfather was a Chicago
firefighter for thirty-five years.
My co-workers, who were also placed
on leave, left careers in other
departments to be here in Oak Lawn.
My friend, Sebastian Katzel, is the
proud new father of a baby boy that
was born just last week. Sebastian
is also a paramedic and has been on
the job two years. His wife and him
have two children.
Dana Bartunek has been on the job
for almost three years now. Dana is
a paramedic was currently on leave
due to an on the job injury. Just
like the rest of us, her insurance
will be up on the twenty-second.
There is a village board meeting on
Tuesday, April 22ND. At this meeting
they will vote on this proposed
budget. What I am asking for is a
show of support at this meeting.
This meeting will be held on the
second floor of the village hall,
9446 S. Raymond (5300 west on 95th
street) at 7P.M. I love my job!!!
--as all of you do. This proposed
budget that will strip the fire
department down to a skeleton crew,
is in clear retaliation to our
contract negotiation problems. If we
let these jerks here in Oak Lawn get
away with this, then it will become
commonplace for other local
governments to try this tactic at
negotiation times.
Sincerely,
Walter O'Neil Jr.
cutlass1313@yahoo.com |
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