Fire staffing debate heated

City Councilman Ben Gray called the Omaha Fire Department's minimum staffing ordinance “leverage” that firefighters use to their advantage.
Firefighters called it “protection” and “insurance” — an important measure to prevent firefighters' safety from being negotiated at the contract bargaining table.
Whether the ordinance should be repealed and whether firefighters should remain staffed four to a truck remain hot-button issues that another city councilman said won't go away soon.
“I'm confident of that,” said Council President Garry Gernandt.
Tuesday, firefighters and several citizen taxpayer watchdogs passionately debated a proposal from Gray to repeal the city's minimum staffing requirement of four firefighters per truck.


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H1N1: Is It a Crisis or Is Staffing the Real Crisis?

I recently returned from the APIC conference, where topics on the agenda ranged from H1NI, to Model Infection Prevention System of the Future.

Most infection preventionists at the meeting felt they knew how to address the challenges of this new pandemic or knew where to look for resources on how to manage as there's a plethora of information available. The real buzz seemed to be the concern around the lack of staffing and that impact on both the infection preventionist group as well as the nursing profession in general.


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Seasonal Staffing Alternatives for Your Contact Center

Jul 21, 2009 9:39 PM, By Penny Reynolds


It’s summer and time to plan for your peak staffing needs for the busy holiday season. While your base staff will carry you throughout the summer, you’ll need to begin hiring in September to get new staff trained and ready to handle calls for the peak holiday season that begins in October.

But unlike other types of call centers, you’ll no longer need these staff after the first of the year. Whether your peak is October–December, February–March, or April–July, catalog call centers and other types of seasonal businesses face a unique challenge in finding qualified staff to handle just a few months of peak call demand.

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