The UFA has prepared a Digital Lobby Day this year, due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Although we cannot physically visit our elected officials, we can still ensure our voices are heard and our message is made clear.

Each delegate should have received an email listing the Senator, Assembly Member and City Council Member that represents the district of their firehouse and their digital contact information, including email, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram handles. We are asking delegates to share this list with their members so that it can be used to send messages directly to the politicians. We will be asking representatives to contact the UFA by emailing NYCFireLegislativeDirector@ufanyc.org or calling (212) 545-6978 so that we can speak with them directly regarding the bills that matter most to our membership.

The email delegates received also contains the messages to be sent to each elected official, specific to each digital channel. We provided a message to be sent to each representative via email, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. We ask that all members send each representative a copy of these messages on each platform. Messages should be sent as soon as possible and throughout the weekend.

For the email, all you will have to do is insert the name of the representative you are directing the message to, and fill in your name and company at the end of the message. The same email can be sent to each politician on your firehouse list.

When posting the messages on social media, you will just need to change the handle to ensure it posts to the corresponding elected official’s page. The UFA handle is also included in each message, and we remind members to make sure we are tagged so we receive as much exposure as possible as we get our message out there. The UFA logo was attached to the email and can be included in your posts as an image.

Although it’s taking a different form this year, it’s important as ever to make sure our elected officials know that we are depending on them for their support and political action. We thank you in advance for taking the time to send these messages to your representatives.

The text of the email that was sent to delegates can be found below. Copy and paste the message to send to your reps.

Members can also access their local firehouse elected officials by finding their company in the links below:

• BRONX
• BROOKLYN
• MANHATTAN
• QUEENS
• STATEN ISLAND

Delegates:

We are ramping up to conduct our first ever Digital Lobby Day. Attached is the digital contact information for the representatives local to your firehouse.

We ask that you have your members reach out to each representative via email and social media. We are looking to get messages out to the reps throughout the weekend. We have provided the following messages for each outlet. Please insert the name of the representative you are sending the message to, and complete with your name and company at end of the message. We ask this to be sent to each representative on your list to make sure our message is heard by each and every elected official that represents us.

EMAIL:

Dear -REPRESENTATIVE NAME-,

I am a firefighter at -COMPANY- serving the community you represent and I am concerned about the many issues that affect the Firefighters and First Responders of New York City. We want to know that our needs are met and our families protected. I ask that you contact the UFA and our Legislative Director by emailing NYCFireLegislativeDirector@ufanyc.org or calling (212) 545-6978 at your earliest convenience to ensure our voices are heard.

Sincerely,

-FIREFIGHTER NAME-

-COMPANY-

If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to reach out to my office.

Thank you,

Robert C Eustace
Vice President