San Jose said no to letting its firefighters participate in a state-funded cancer prevention and research program — until pressure forced the city to reverse course.
Thirteen state legislators advocated for San Jose firefighters in a Feb. 14 letter to participate in the program that wouldn’t cost the city a dime. San Jose was awarded a full grant under Assembly Bill 700 — a recently-passed law allowing the University of California to oversee the California Firefighter Cancer Prevention and Research Program. But the city manager’s office refused to authorize the request, labor groups and lawmakers told San José Spotlight.
Jerry May, president of San Jose Fire Fighters Local Union 230, was stunned by the initial denial. He said the union received a $750,000 grant last December to collaborate with UC Berkeley and Lawrence Livermore Laboratory on a study to determine the effects of secondhand smoke from fire vehicle turnouts and within the engines and trucks. In addition to not allowing firefighters to participate, May said the city also declined allowing them to swab city property, a critical component of the research.
“We made it really easy for the city to say yes. Then the city came back and (initially) said, ‘Hey we’re going to decline to participate,’ I was like, ‘Are you kidding me?'” May told San José Spotlight. “Without us going down this road, we’d still be in the same spot we were a couple of weeks ago where the city wasn’t giving us the opportunity to participate.”
The South Bay Labor Council wrote a Jan. 23 resolution supporting the firefighter program, and Mayor Matt Mahn weighed in as well.
“I appreciate Local 230’s advocacy for this important research and support their decision to participate in the study,” Mahan told San José Spotlight on Feb. 28. “I hope they can work collaboratively with our fire chief and city manager’s office to develop a shared implementation plan and move forward.”
After questions from this news organization as to why the request had been denied, the city informed May on March 6 the grant and program had been approved.
“The city has continued discussions with San Jose Fire Fighters Local Union 230 and have advised them the city will participate,” city spokesperson Demetria Machado told San José Spotlight.
State Sen. Dave Cortese said he was concerned about the city’s lack of commitment to the cancer research program, leading him to co-author Senate Bill 700, which would compel cities like San Jose to participate in the state program.
Cortese said he wants to pass the bill so no additional cities drag their feet when it comes to cancer research.
“A majority of firefighters now, including retirees, are now dying of cancer, mostly leukemia. It’s a staggering statistic,” he told San José Spotlight. “This program will use the science that we have available now to create an opportunity to take corrective action in the future, and our local government should want to do that.”
Jean Cohen, executive director of the South Bay Labor Council, said she’s glad to hear the city is pivoting to partner with the research institutions.
“It should be an easy topic for everyone to unite around,” she told San José Spotlight. “But unfortunately, we have to do education sometimes when it comes to health issues facing workers, because oftentimes their issues are not considered by management until it becomes a crisis.”
Firefighters deserve the modern and protective safety measures afforded to other San Jose first responders like police officers, May said.
“Treat us with some dignity and respect,” May told San José Spotlight. “We’ll keep fighting for all the cancer screenings and tests we can so our members can be protected from this job, because it’s like I said, it’s killing us.”
Contact Vicente Vera at [email protected] or follow @VicenteJVera on X.
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