the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist
“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx
the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist
“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx
Feb 17, 2025
In a press conference two weeks ago, the Los Angeles United Firefighters publicized that firefighters are forced to work lots of unpaid overtime. In fact, the firefighters’ suit about forced unpaid overtime goes back many years.
According to the U.S. Department of Labor, forcing lengthy hours of overtime on firefighters without pay is perfectly legal.
Even when there are no fires, the firefighters are forced to work overtime with no pay because of a lack of staff. A firefighter-paramedic, Daniel Gonzalez, who has served 21 years with the Los Angeles Fire Department, said: “In the mornings if we don’t have enough staffing to fill every position in the fire department because a fire engine can’t operate without four people on it, we have to have constant staffing. It’s the same thing with the paramedic ambulance; we have to have two paramedics on there. So if we don’t have enough people on duty that day, they hold us over until our shift technically ends at 8:00 to make sure that they can place us.”
Why is there a lack of firefighters?
Because the City of Los Angeles has continuously cut the fire department’s budget for decades. In a recent example, a leaked memo revealed that Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass demanded an extra budget cut of $49 million. And she demanded this cut just one week before devastating Los Angeles wildfires broke out. In the same memo, she also wrote, “The only way to provide a cost savings would be to close as many as 16 fire stations (not resources, fire stations); this equates to at least one fire station per City Council District.”
Why would the City of Los Angeles officials want to cut the firefighters’ budget? Because these officials feed their business buddies through tax cuts and grossly inflated projects. These officials find the money for this looting, the firefighters get the boot.
During the big L.A. wildfires, politicians, rich people, and the news media couldn’t stop praising firefighters for their bravery and heroism. But, as the old saying goes, money talks … and bullshit walks.