Posted on 06/22/2006 11:24:28 PM PDT by JamesGreer
Officials are now having to lay off some of the bosses who manage those firefighting crews because the bosses are not bilingual. Many of the newer hires in Oregon only speak Spanish.
The state said all bosses must speak the same language of their crew on the fire lines for safety reasons. They want to make sure that the leader of the crews can quickly communicate during an emergencey if the fire turns or if there is another problem on the fire lines.
(Excerpt) Read more at thedenverchannel.com ...
Lars Larson has been talking about this on his radio show for a couple of days.
http://www.larsradio.com/NorthwestHeadlines/171913.aspx
Job qualifications should have certainly included ability to read and write English, how did theat get by?
We also need to fire a large part of Congress, those that don't speak plain English and know what the word AMNESTY means like the majority of US taxpayers.
Already mailed will check her site, she is the best out here and News with a View
Thanks for the ping. This is ridiculous.
Now you gone and dun it. Your going to get the englisk oly workers fired.
I've heard in some cases if you don't speak Spanish you can't even have a job. But if you can speak only Spanish, it's OK, you can have any one you want. Of course, to be a US citizen one tiny requirement is the ability to speak English. But, then that would imply these jobs can only go to American citizens and would be discriminatory, right?
Did I miss anything important while explaining this cozy little PC con game going on in our feckless country which obviously doesn't have the b@lls to defend it's own interests from criminal invaders, their lawyers and our hack politicians?
The next requirement from the State of Oregon is that all potential fire victims need to know Spanish in order to communicate with the firemen!
...the Klinton Krime Machine, again...
Sounds like discrimination to me. If ever there was a time for a lawsuit...
Oregon is the most liberal State in the Union west of Vermont and Massachusettes.
I understand now the job was contracted out and the contract holder hired the cheapest labor to be found. English was not a requirement.
Jail the contractor and the state agency who let the contract should be disciplined. The hirees should be dismissed and the hiring process started over.
For a state that claims to care for the worker, they sure didn't show it here. The contractor probably pocketed millions.
Posted a version of this story yesterday. In case anyone wants to see, it's at:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1653966/posts
If you ask me, it's going to cause trouble for fire managers.
It's okay to only speak Spanish and not English, even while working in an English-speaking country.
It is not okay for the English-speaking person living in the English-speaking country to speak only English. In order to keep a job, he or she must speak Spanish also.
Sounds ripe for a legal challenge.
I have encountered this in countless job advertisements and job interviews as well.
Fire work really isn't a good place for politics. One of the big bottlenecks is, and will always be skilled crew bosses, and a good boss keeps his crew alive in touchy situations.
There are moments in fire where you get caught up in the work, and when you look up, you may have very little time to do the right thing, drop and run, find safety in the black, get those fire shelters out and huddle down. Or whatever. Any confusion or delay can mean people die.
Good bosses have experience. Good bosses know how to keep their crew from getting hurt. It's easy to find workers to cut line, but the guys who manage the crews are not just someone appointed. They have training and experience to deal with these things.
No language confusion or delay is good in these situations, this is true. When you have people who don't know English having to have stuff relayed to them, you could put their lives in jeopardy, because of the criticalness. I personally think that everyone out there needs to understand English well enough do deal with these times. The bosses are getting their info in English from the guys managing the crews. Monolinguistics makes it safer for everyone.
I have a second language. I'm not being prejudiced against Spanish. From my POV, I see it as a safety concern, giving up people who have the wherewithal and experience to guide crews in dangerous situations beause someone decided to make political points. I just wouldn't want anybody to die in a life or death situation because of lack of experience on the boss' part or because of a time delay because of language confusion.
Yep, that's why I think injecting a PC agenda into firefighting is a deadly move.
Your post #54 is EXCELLENT!!!
ping
It is.
And the wildfire in Oregon and Washington (where a lot of these crews will work most, although they can show up anywhere the need is once the fires get big) get tricky.
And then if we have a fire year like in 2000 with a need for hurricane help too, maxing out resources, it's going to be interesting. The bottleneck always is crew bosses. You can bring the national guard in, but they have to have trained crew bosses.
Some situations you can't just throw money at it and get an immediate fix. You have to have time to get the personnel trained. Thrwoing away good people seems stupid.
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