Thread: Fire fighters being fired/ demoted for not speaking Spanish

Oregon: Fire fighters being fired or demoted for not speaking Spanish.

http://waronyou.blogspot.com/2008/03/fi ... aking.html

This is insane.

Accomidate the Spanish speaking firefighters who don't speak English by firing the English speakers?

What about the rights of English speaking victims of fires?

This is America--don't hire Spanish-only speakers as fire fighters. Are non-English speaking Spanish firemen citizens? It is illegal to hire illegal immigrants.

English speaking firefighters..........SUE FOR DISCRIMINATION!

Bilingual war fought on both ends of country


Two news stories collided last week, coming from opposite poles of the bilingual-policy spectrum.

One involves crews of Oregon firefighters, and the other involves the owner of a famous Philadelphia steak house.

The most unusual story is the one in Oregon, where the state Department of Forestry has begun enforcing a ruling created a couple of years ago that requires supervisors on forest firefighting crews to be bilingual.

The rule was written as a safety issue, since some firefighters can’t speak English and are unable to follow commands from supervisors who can’t speak Spanish. Rather than requiring firefighters to speak English, the state decided to require supervisors to speak both English and Spanish.

Some supervisors have been laid off or demoted for not complying with the rule.

It isn’t known how many firefighters can’t speak English, but a survey shows that 85 percent of the firefighting manpower is from Hispanic descent, according to one state official.

Jaime Pickering is one of those demoted under the rule. He doesn’t speak Spanish, so he was told he could no longer supervise a 20-man crew and has been put in charge of a four-man squad. “If you have one Spanish guy on the crew, as an English (speaking) boss, you can no longer be a crew boss,â€

Dixie wrote:

The most unusual story is the one in Oregon, where the state Department of Forestry has begun enforcing a ruling created a couple of years ago that requires supervisors on forest firefighting crews to be bilingual.

The rule was written as a safety issue, since some firefighters can’t speak English and are unable to follow commands from supervisors who can’t speak Spanish. Rather than requiring firefighters to speak English, the state decided to require supervisors to speak both English and Spanish.....

Manuel Franco, who agrees with the ruling for safety reasons but who thinks immigrants ought to learn to speak English, is benefitting from the policy. He hires contract workers for firefighters’ jobs and supplies some of Oregon’s crews, and he finds that it is increasingly difficult to find English-speaking men to fill vacancies.

Thanks for the information Dixie.

Is Manuel Franco hiring illegal aliens?

So Oregon firefighters are state employees or contracted to the state by Manuel Franco?

it sounds to me like there needs to one hell of an inveswtigation going on in Oregon which needs to begin right here, with this guy:

Manuel Franco, who agrees with the ruling for safety reasons but who thinks immigrants ought to learn to speak English, is benefitting from the policy. He hires contract workers for firefighters’ jobs and supplies some of Oregon’s crews, and he finds that it is increasingly difficult to find English-speaking men to fill vacancies.





What's going on here is not acceptable. Talk about a lawsuit just looking for a place to occur.........this would be it.

The most unusual story is the one in Oregon, where the state Department of Forestry has begun enforcing a ruling created a couple of years ago that requires supervisors on forest firefighting crews to be bilingual.

The rule was written as a safety issue, since some firefighters can’t speak English and are unable to follow commands from supervisors who can’t speak Spanish. Rather than requiring firefighters to speak English, the state decided to require supervisors to speak both English and Spanish.

This is absolutely insane! Why is the Department of Forestry hiring people who do not speak English! Why are not these people required to learn English! If the government can get away with this, imagine what private employers can do in the way of requiring people to speak Spanish.

Another reason as to why English needs to be declared the official language of the United States.

Another reason as to why English needs to be declared the official language of the United States.

I 100% agree......what do they do when they try and get people out of a building who are bi-lingual but don't speak Spanish? Learned English and abided by the rules and yet a firefighter who won't speak English? If "bi-lingualism" is so wonderful and great.....they why the fight to refuse to speak English? Why is it only beneficial to speak Spanish when they haven't even attempted to learn any other language? How many anti-English Latinos are fluent in any other language? I'm sure some are.....but not the majority. Oregon is far from a "border state" as well.......

If you have to tell people to leave a burning building, they are to stupid to
learn any language

It's not that simple. The smoke is usually what kills people and it's important to be able to communicate verbally with people trying to assist you.
On that note, "help me" is "ayudame" and "fire" is "fuego" and "over here" is "este direccion." Oh and "why the **** are you employed as an emergency worker in the US?" is "Dios mio! Esta situacion es ESTUPIDO!"

Ok let's call the Governor in Oregon. Let's ask why American citizens are being discrimination against.


Here is the information:

MAIL
Governor Kulongoski
160 State Capitol
900 Court Street
Salem, Oregon 97301-4047

PHONE
Governor’s Citizens’ Representative Message Line
503.378.4582



FAX
503.378.6827



I'll see if I can find a firefighters union.


I wrote to the Oregon Firefighters Council.