NEO is for New Employee Orientation

This is New Employee Orientation season, for wildland firefighters with the Oregon Department of Forestry.  As part of that orientation along with getting your fireline gear and signing up for health insurance remember to sign up as a member with your own professional firefighting union, SEIU 503.  That gear and health insurance that you will use is all because members, as I hope you will become, took time to negotiate them.  There was a time when line gear didn't fit and tents and sleeping bags just covered most of the body.  That all changed when a special committee was established to see what the general standards of gear was and options available for the Department to supply them.  The quality gear that you use today, directly came out of the Committee's recommendation's.

Membership helps support benefits like health insurance and reasonable pay for the important work you do protecting Oregon's Forests from wildfire.  Please join at NEO or contact a Local Officer or Mike Bray of SEIU 503 staff organizer to find out how.