Posted on 06/22/2006 3:40:45 PM PDT by Knitting A Conundrum
Bilingual fire boss rule stirs controversy
By Melica Johnson and KATU.com Web Staff
SALEM, Ore. - Some English-speaking firefighters are losing their jobs because of an Oregon state law that requires them to be bilingual.
The Department of Forestry enacted a law three years ago that requires them to be bilingual, but this year they're actually enforcing it.
2002 was such a devastating wildfire season, contractors were scrambling to find firefighters.
Hispanics often filled their needs on the fire lines.
Jim Walker of the Department of Forestry said "what we do know is 85 percent of the crew make-up is of Hispanic decent."
But many of the Hispanic fire fighters do not speak English. Walker says the language barrier is a concern.
Those concerns led the state to draft a new rule that all firefighting bosses speak English, and the languages of crew members who don't speak English.
Jaime Pickering, a squad boss overseeing 20 firefighters, says the rule means "job losses for Americans. The white people."
Because of the state's language requirement, Pickering can no longer work as a crew boss and supervise 20 firefighters, he can only manage a squad of four.
Pickering says that "if you have one Spanish guy on the crew, as an English crew boss, you can no longer be a crew boss, you have to step back to a squad boss, which is a demotion."
While the state made the rule change in 2003, it decided to strictly monitor the law this year as Hispanics continue to fill fire lines.
Jim Walker says "our main concern is that they are safe, and they are in a safe environment, and a lot of that deals with communication."
Manuel Franco is a Hispanic contractor for fire crews. He says he thinks the state's rule is necessary for worker safety.
"I think that's good, because that's for safety purpose," Franco says. "If there's a rock rolling down, everybody should understand that."
However, Manuel did say he felt the situation would improve if everyone spoke English. "We're living here. We should speak the language."
Jim Walker ponders the possibility that all fire crew members should be required to speak English, instead of having bilingual crew leaders.
"If it comes down to a safety issue, and it's determined that's the only way we can have people safely on an incident, then yes," Walker said.
Both Oregon state officials and those in the firefighting business say they do not think there are 'that many' illegal immigrant workers in the fire crews.
They say it is more a case of legal workers who do not speak English.
Once upon a time, most guys actually out cutting line were a combination of Forest Service and other fed employees, college kids and other people looking for summer jobs, supplemented by casual labor. Nowadays, it's still moderately casual, but by having the state supply the work crews, one is subjected to the Oregonian concept of how to do things. There are not many Forest service employees left at that level (in part because there aren't nearly that many FS employees any more), and they mostly do management jobs.
Some work crews in the west are mostly staffed by Native Americans, which seems to have become a warrior culture activity (and pity the person who tries to put members of the wrong tribes together on the same crew bus).
But in Oregon in particular, and in other places as well, there aren't as many college students doing this work, and a lot of them are now hispanic.
Doing what they are doing is hard work. Fighting wildfire on the line is a lot like ditch digging. You hack and cut and clear the ground down to the mineral earth. The tools are a combination of things like axes, and mattocks and shovels and polaskis, a sort of axe/hoe combination.
A lot of young people don't even want to think about it. It's hot, there's a lot of smoke, the hourly wage is kind of low (although you make a killing in OT - 12 hour shifts for 2 weeks at a time on a big fire).
And so this is a result.
There are some safety factors involved. If most of your guys don't speak English, and you get in a crisis situation, and have to deploy fire shelters, they better be able to understand.
But just another example of the direction things are going.
Je parle Francais un peut. Je suis "bilingual", oui?
That won't stop the anti-hispanic kneejerkers on FR who will b!tch to the moon, but ask them to become a firefighter and you will hear crickets.
Also, However, Manuel did say he felt the situation would improve if everyone spoke English. "We're living here. We should speak the language.", which I agree with.
That would be ok if you were bringing in a crew from Quebec....you have to be bilingual in the language of your work crew.
This is pure crap.
The direction of things is just getting worse and worse and trade and trade, illegals take over.
Does having brown skin magically give you the ability to speak Spanish?
I've seen some mighty light skinned Spanish speakers, FWIW...
What about the safety aspect of having to give safety directions in two languages? Doesn't that slow the response time and endanger whosever language is spoken second? Who gets first warning to break out the fire tents?
Sorry but I believe they ought to require fireworkers to speak English. Do they allow non-English speaking firemen in communities? This is stupid. The best and brightest fire management will be lost to the crews while less-experienced but bilingual bosses endanger everyone.
That would be all *I* would need!
You don't want to get me started about what's happening to fire managaement (doesn't have to do with the biligual issue).
Surely do.
Hispanic is cultural, not racial.
RE: #2 Trying to make a couple of points here. Somehow, "bilingual" only means Spanish. It should not.
If you are going to work in this country in a critical job such as firefighting, you need to speak English well. It is not the job of government to require a crew chief to speak other languages (a plus in the salary department, sure). I live near a large Vietnamese community, so by the standards of the article, firefighting crew chiefs should be required to speak Vietnamese in that area.
but ask them to become a firefighter and you will hear crickets.
hmmmm hubby was a firefighter for 33 yrs. I know by sight or name almost everyone in a 450 man/woman dept. I also know many CDF and BLM people. I know quite a few BFD (city) firefighters here. Guess what? they ALL speak English!
What an assinine statement.
Not my law...this is how they think in Oregon. I'd require every mother's son and daughter to be able to pass a English competency test for safety reasons.
"pass a English competency test for safety reasons"
How do ya read road signs if you can't read English?
In Colorado, I think you can take the driving test in Spanish.
Well, greatgranny, I think that you may be onto something here.
Interesting article ping
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