Jeremy Gillam, firefighter, paramedic and President of the International Association of Fire Fighters Local 1120 in Bucyrus, Ohio, joined the America's Work Force Union Podcast to describe a fire department being pushed past its limits by a city council that, he said, is prioritizing budget cuts over public safety.
Bucyrus has an 18-member department that took on full EMS responsibility for the city and four surrounding townships in 2021, with no corresponding increase in staffing. Local 1120 believes the minimum safe staffing levels have eroded to the point that the union offered to accept zero percent wage increases just to get a sixth firefighter back on overnight shifts. When the fire chief, who had come up through the union's own ranks, began working against members at the bargaining table, the Local held a vote of no confidence and delivered that to the city council.
Gillam also raised serious concerns about the department's ability to respond to a major chemical incident — a real concern considering the city is just miles away from East Palestine, Ohio, where a major train derailment created just such a situation in 2023..
Jeremy Gillam grew up catching school buses at his father's firehouse. His dad is a retired assistant chief from Mifflin Township in Richland County, Ohio. Fire service was never a career choice so much as a calling that had been waiting for him his entire life, he said.
After 26 years in the fire service and nearly five as union president of IAFF Local 1120, Gillam knows the Bucyrus City Fire Department as well as anyone. What he is watching happen to it concerns him deeply.
The Bucyrus Fire Department has 18 IAFF members serving a city and, since 2021, four surrounding townships. Providing the EMS service significantly expanded the department's coverage area and call volume, Gillam said. When that EMS responsibility was added, meaningful additional staffing did not follow. The department has been absorbing the workload of a larger coverage area with the same number of personnel, and in recent years, the situation has worsened further, with overnight staffing dropping to five firefighters.
The department's own chief has acknowledged that six is the minimum safe number. The union has been arguing for it. So has the current mayor and safety service director. But a city council focused on cutting costs has been pulling the reins on staffing decisions, Gillam said. The result is a fire and EMS department running below the floor it has collectively identified as the minimum for safe operations.
Gillam described what the union has been willing to put on the table to fix it. At the end-of-year wage reopener, Local 1120 told the administration it would accept a zero percent wage increase in exchange for getting the sixth firefighter back. That is how critical the staffing issue is. The members were willing to forego a pay increase to have a safe number of people on shift. The city has yet to act on that offer.
The staffing crisis is compounded by a problem closer to home. The fire chief, who rose through the union's ranks and built his career under the union contract, has been working against members at the bargaining table, Gillam said. He described a pattern in which the city administration would agree to union proposals during negotiations, and the chief would step in and reverse the position, negotiating against the people he was supposed to be leading.
The Local's response was unanimous – a vote of no confidence. Gillam delivered the information to the city council and called each member forward to stand beside him as he read the statement into the record. Council, he said, did not see it coming. They were shocked. That was the point, Gillam said.
Gillam has been clear with the chief that the vote is not personal. It is about the position — the expectations that come with sitting in that corner office and the responsibility to the men and women who serve under it. The union is hoping the vote serves as a moment of reflection and that constructive momentum follows.
Gillam raised another concern that goes beyond internal department politics. Trains carrying hazardous materials regularly pass through Bucyrus. Gillam said that their 18-member department, which manages simultaneous EMS and fire calls across a multi-township coverage area, could not contain a major chemical emergency similar the nearby 2023 East Palestine train derailment, which kept chemicals burning for days.
Gillam and his members have become more active on social media in recent months, to keep the public informed but also help people understand what they are actually paying for when they see fire trucks and ambulances running calls at all hours. The community support, he said, has been strong. The fire station is a public building. The doors are open. Any Bucyrus taxpayer is welcome to come up, take a tour and see what the department does on a daily basis. Gillam said he would welcome it.
More information and updates from IAFF Local 1120 are available on the union's Facebook page.
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