Front Page  »  

Napa winery plays with fire in criticizing fire fighters

April 19, 2010

Dario Sattui

In a reminder as to why many people prefer to remain anonymous in posting comments, particularly those criticizing public servants, a Napa Valley winery has become the target of an intense boycott by local fire fighters–over a Letter to the Editor. [Watch on Sonoma County]

The letter, written by Dario Sattui, owner of  V. Sattui Winery, criticized the wage and benefits package of North Bay firefighters. Published in the St. Helena Star, Sattui’s letter argued, “While I respect the work they do and the inherent dangers, they are greatly overpaid, work only two days a week (a third of which they sleep) and get to retire at 50 years old at 90 percent of their pay after working 30 years.”

Reaction was swift to the April 9th letter. The political director for the Santa Rosa fire fighters union spread the word on Facebook and Twitter, resulting in an avalanche of negative comments being posted on the winery’s Facebook page.

The social networks were also used to call for a boycott of the St. Helena winery. One Facebook page supporting a boycott, set up by a Ukiah paramedic, quickly boasted more than 800 fans.

“I only hope that when your winery is burning down, no fire fighters come to help your business,” one post read. “I hope your business rots in hell in this economy.”

A different Facebook page, entitled “V Sattui Wine Tastes Like Raw Sewage” suggested the winery was engaged in “strange labor practices.”

“Public Safety people who want to stay healthy, and their supporters, should probably avoid V. Sattui wines to avoid gagging as they drink,” suggested another post.

Another post, made by the vice-president of the Santa Rosa Police Officers’ Association, featured a photo of the vintner with the caption, “Our hero…should anyone get flagged down by him or see him choking in a restaurant.”

The photo and caption were abruptly taken down.


Loading...
Related:


66 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

“Where do I sign up to be a firefighter? I can do that job two days a week and run my two wineries on the side. What a deal. I can’t wait.

Dario Sattui, Vintner, St. Helena”


“Thank you for your interest, unfortunately there are no job vacancies at this time. All positions have been filled by the very best and the most dedicated. You may inquire again 9-11-2012.

Tuesday Night Quarterback Fire Department”


0

My Dad retired from the fire dept after a long career,my oldest brother also retired after 20 yrs, my next oldest brother just retired after 30 years of service.I can tell you that they all were paid very well and my dad and oldest brother had a second income from side businesses because of the many days off afforded them with the work schedule.

It appears today’s public service employees are mostly different then when my family entered the service.They did not go into it for the money as much as they wanted to serve and provide for their families.I personally know of a local fireman that has a base pay of $115,000 because he is a captain,

he always makes a lot more then his base pay and is a union pushing force .

Its time we here in Cali deal with the unions and over paid public emploees, prison guards, CHP etc.


0

Reddog, I am absolutely flabbergasted after reading your post. First why are you and the other FF working 48 hour shifts? That doesn’t even make any sense apart from maybe you guys like having 5 days off a week. Is there any reason why a fire fighter can’t work a 12 hour shift and go to work 5 days a week ? You are telling us that a house fire can last 6 hours or that an emergency call can take up to 3 hours or that occasionally you stay up all night and work for every hour that you are paid for and then you are tired. That is exactly what the rest of us do, we work every hour that we are paid for and then we are tired. You are telling us that you don’t always get enough sleep while your on the job!! Why are you sleeping on the job at all, do you think the private sector 3rd shift workers sleep? Your problem is that you fire fighters are working shifts that should be illegal because you certainly can’t be at your best after 24-36 hours if should not have an opportunity to take a few naps. Yes I’m certain you see carnage on the highway’s and that it is heart wrenching. I don’t mean to be unsympathetic but that is the job that you signed up for. Be happy that you don’t work in an ER because nurses work under that sort of pressure day in and day out, including Holidays and they don’t get a chance to take naps. They sleep at home where they are supposed to sleep and show up for work ready to perform just like the rest of us. If you were working a 12 hour shift you would sound rather ridiculous telling us how hard you have it because you worked 9 of those 12 hours, wouldn’t you? In short, you guys set yourselves up and make it hard, or maybe easy for the most part and then complain when you have a busy night and don’t get paid for enough sleep! Try a 5 day work week.


0

I am willing to bet that those officials committed those breaches on tax payers time!


More relevant is the reality that no one from top scale – down in the working class (public or private sector) will be exempt from the pain of recovery.


In the meantime, this would be a great time to screen out the men from the boys and cut off some overhead in those agencies!


0

Regardless of Mr. Sattui opinion.

The conduct of those responsible goes beyond being officious, a grave breach of public trust has been committed.

If someone of authority does not investigate and take action against those responsible for this outrage, the public trust will in fact remain unchanged!


0

Correction

If someone of authority does not investigate and take action against those responsible for this outrage, the “lost” of public trust or the public fear will in fact remain unchanged!


0

I hope this reaches all th e pros and cons out there. Here is a little education for you.

I work a two by four schedule, what that means is, I work 48 hrs on with four days of rotating. If I work Monday, Tuesday, the following week I work Sunday, Monday and so on through out the year. I work three out of seven days a week. That comes to 72 hrs. .

Our Salaries are based on the hours we work in a year and the number of days in a month. In general I work ten days a month but because of short and long months some time Ill work nine and others eleven.

This year my shift worked Christmas Eve and Christmas day and with three sons it can be very heart breaking. When they get mad that I cannot attend holidays or function I have to understand what price they pay as well. Thank God they support me in what I do. I do not work every holiday, next year ill work Christmas Eve but not Christmas day.

I admit, the truth is sometimes I get paid to sleep. And yes we do take an hour for lunch (and sometimes Ill take a quick cat nap). Other times, we get woken up at night, sometimes twice. If I go to bed at ten and get a medical aid call at midnight it takes, three minutes to get up and into the engine, about six minutes to drive to the incident, twenty to sixty minutes on scene, six minutes to return five minutes to use the restroom and get back to bed and finally about twenty minutes to fall back asleep. A structure fire can last up to six hours, I’ve stayed up all night at a meth lab with sheriff deputies waiting for state Haz-mat officers to come and dismantle it. If any of this happens on my first day or night, I still have to work my second day. At any time with in my 48 hour shift, If someone calls we have to go.

But the hardest part of my job is seeing death and carnage. I have to tell myself “The insides are just as natural as the outsides” and “Death is a part of life”. There are names of people I don’t know that I will never forget. The name Jason will always remain with me. He was a young boy, about the age of my son twelve, who was killed in a head on collision by a drunk driver. When we reached the accident scene Jason’s mother was still alive but unconscious in the front passenger seat. Jason was sitting behind her. The large SUV had struck the passenger side of the car killing Jason instantly. The right side of his face had severe traumatic injuries. I had to crawl over Jason and hold his mothers head to protect her neck while the other firefighters were setting up to cut her out of the car with the Jaws of Life. The dash board had smashed both her legs down to the floor. I knew that if she survived she would lose her legs at the knees. But with in minutes I felt her heart stop. The Paramedic at scene decided that due to the mechanism of injury we would not try to revive her. We covered both bodies and waited for the cornier to arrive to allow the CHP to investigate and photograph the scene. Once they were done it was still our job to “disentangle” the bodies from the car and load them into the county van for the trip to the morgue.

Please understand that the danger in our job isn’t only the fires we fight, it’s what’s lost in the fire that can really cause harm to us and our families.

Rene Torres,

Firefighter


0

P.S. On behalf of professional fireman, I’d like to apologize for all the unprofessional comments.


0

coroner


0

Thank You, your broad based apology dignify’s you and your honorable profession. mkaney X2


0

Finally, a professional. It is heartening to know that they still exist. Professionals are the ones that deserve the high salaries, and without the unions, you would be the ones who are properly rewarded. The solidarity only holds you back.


0

I think it’s important for people to observe the number of comments with regard to this story, and similar stories on other sites. It should be of concern that whenever articles like this are posted, the union trolls come out en masse and take the offense against people critical of public employees, particularly LEOs and firefighters. I have found myself many a time to be the target of these groups as a result of my comments.


If this is the kind of control and politics they practice in these incidents, how does this mentality translate into other areas of their jobs? What does this say about the political messages from these organizations during election periods? The list of things to be concerned about is extensive, and I hope this incident sparks some ongoing skepticism towards these organizations, their tactics, their TESTIMONY IN COURT, and so on…


0

Regardless of ones opinion, we each have a right to say what we feel. However, when those words are threatening or could injure another, we do not. For the firefighters and police union president to wish the man dead because he has an opposing opinion shows that they have totally lost touch with their role in society. They are paid well to do a dirty job and to help people. All people…not just the ones that support their salaries. What is also foolish is that support for the public safety salaries and benefits comes from taxes. Should the vintner close his doors because of the mob mentality, the property value will quickly be lowered with a reduction in property taxes and there will be no sales tax generated. So now there is less tax dollars to fund the very group that wants him out of business. That is actually rather disturbing response by the firefighters and gives the community an outstanding reason to develop a salary and benefit limitation initiative for the voters. I am not even suggesting this, but there are consequences when the public loses confidence in those who are paid to protect them. Time for some apologies by the firefighters and get on with life.


0

Mr. Deis, you and the rest of the gov’t employees that have these wonderful benefits don’t get any of my sympathy. The unions are the root of many of the problems we face. They are nothing but a bunch of good for nothing, think only of themselves, liberals. I haven’t paid anything into my 401k for two years because I can’t afford it. Why should you and your cronies be any different in these economic times?? Trust me you couldn’t do my job either. You are a no good pos in my eyes for the comments you made. Forget the strike, fire the lot of you and start over.


0

standup…..sitdown! When you were funding your 401-k to the max back in the day when times were “good” these “cronies” weren’t getting any extra because everyone else was rollin’.


0

When you speak out publicly and criticize people the way this guy did, you have to be ignorant not to expect those people are going to strike back. In his letter, Mr. Sattui also said firefighters work for “get paid for doing nothing for 25-30 years”. Rediculous. These firefighters have every right to not support a business if they want.

I am so sick of spoiled business owners who have been thriving, raking in the dough over the past SEVERAL years (good for you by the way) and now that your business is slowing down and you can’t make your Bentley payment, you come after public safety. When times are good for you, you could care less what thier pensions are. Brats.


0

getoverit, There is no excuse for the way the fire fighters responded to Satturi. It was bully tactics hoodlum style. They were attempting to intimidate him and send a message to anyone who had something to say that they don’t like. They ganged up and flexed muscle at the public and that can not be tolerated. They had every right to respond in a letter to the editor and defend their position. That would have been appropriate and professional but that isn’t what they did. The ring leaders should be rounded up and fired on the spot. The muscle belongs to the people that they serve.

By the way, excellent post paperboy.


0

Nancy…it would be different if Satturi wrote an eduated letter…he didn’t know what he was talking about. Firefighters don’t just work 2 days a week, they don’t always get to sleep and they don’t all retire at 50, very few do. It was insulting, ignorant and he probably wishes he could take it back. I guarantee you he knows nothing about what goes on during a 24 hour shift at the fire department.


0

You and the FD boy’s sure did miss a wonderful opportunity to educate Mr Satturi and the rest of the public. Frankly I really would have expected better from a group of men that I thought were professionals who hang their hats on a reputation of calm professional decorum during critical circumstances. Just look at your some of your posts, “why can he say bad things about the firefighters” , you sound like a school boy. The FD could have turned this into something very positive and had the public eating out of their hand. Whoever came up with the idea to attack Mr Satturi has put all of you in a very light. You and all those in your profession should also be calling for the terminations of the ring leaders who have represented you like a bunch of knee jerk hoodlums. I assure you that public sentiment isn’t going in your direction, no matter how many letters and post the firefighters and their wives write. The public is aware that your union is on a campaign to distort public perception as if the FD behavior can be justified. It can not be.


0

Intended to say : “Whoever came up with the idea to attack Mr Satturi has put all of you in a very BAD light.”

Sorry


0

“The public is aware that your union is on a campaign to distort public perception as if the FD behavior can be justified. It can not be.”……wow Nancy…..


0
1 2 3