Rally supports dispatchers
People bundled up for the cold in jackets, hats, gloves and scarfs when they attended a rally in Yarmouth on Jan. 19, but they also wore their hearts on their sleeves as they said thanks to four fire dispatchers for the work they’ve done to keep the public and firefighters safe.
The dispatchers – Peter Poirier, Jeff Crowell, Rob Lowe and Corey Burke – were notified in April that the town of Yarmouth intended to lay them off and outsource fire dispatch services.
In the months since the union, members of the public and fire departments have fought to dissuade the town from moving in this direction. And while many still want the town to reconsider, those who attended the rally wanted most of all to let the dispatchers know that they’re appreciated.
This meant a lot to the dispatchers. “The show of support is great. It shows that people care. There are normal, everyday citizens here. We’ve got members from fire departments that even though they have left us for their (new) dispatch services they have gladly come to show their support,” said Poirier, one of the four dispatchers who will lose their job. “It means a lot.”
The Town of Yarmouth sent out a media release earlier in the week saying the dispatchers had been offered well-paying jobs as firefighters but that the union turned the offer down. Asked if he wanted to be a fireman, Poirier said, “I would have gladly gone, but there are other parts of that offer that made no sense.”
Asked to elaborate, he said, “We’re not going to get into that. We don’t want to negotiate in the media.”
Poirier said his main concern about moving to outside dispatch centres is it could add extra minutes to response times.
“When we take the telephone call and they say it’s for the Yarmouth Fire Department, we push the button that opens the bay door, and/or at the same time if it’s a house fire or something else that is serious, we push a buzzer that alerts the firefighters right away that they have to start getting dressed,” he said. “By the time we’re done collecting the information, even if it’s two minutes or three minutes of collecting the information, they’re ready to go.