This union’s job is to represent you at the federal, state, provincial and local levels of government on issues dealing with your work and quality of life — your employee rights, the right to be represented by your union and work under a collective bargaining agreement, your safety on the job, your financial and retirement security, and making sure employers pay their fair share in taxes so the tax burden isn’t focused squarely on the shoulders of working families.

You pay your dues for us to represent and fight for you on how much you make, the benefits that protect your family’s health, whether you have a secure retirement after a career of risking your life for your community, how many hours you work and spend away from your family, your safety so you make it home to your family after your shift, and making sure your families are taken care of financially if one of our own makes the ultimate sacrifice.

These are what I call the IAFF’s “basket of issues” that we use to measure political candidates.

Just as significant is your personal “basket of issues” — issues that are critically important to each and every member, but issues that should be dealt with in your own hearts — decisions on pro-life/pro-choice, Second Amendment rights, gay marriage, prayer in schools — areas I don’t think you want your union focusing on or involving itself in. For guidance on those issues, I expect you probably do what I do in my own personal life — look to the teachings of my church and to the values my parents bestowed on me.

But your Executive Board and I take very seriously this union’s role in providing you the best guidance possible on issues and candidates when it comes to the IAFF’s basket of issues.

That’s why, in the very near future, this union will be taking a strong position in the upcoming election to determine who will be president of the United States.

For us, the decision isn’t about Democrats or Republicans. It’s about supporting our political allies. We take great pride in being the most bipartisan union in the House of Labor. In this election, your IAFF will support more Republican Senate and House candidates than any other labor union. And those endorsement decisions will be made on our basket of issues, not on partisanship.

For us, the decision isn’t about appeasing those IAFF members who may align themselves with one political party or another. The decision to support a candidate is about who deserves or has earned the IAFF’s support based on their stand on our issues.

With our trademark “gold and black” campaign effort, we will support candidates who:

 ▪ Support and voted for national collective bargaining
   rights for all professional fire fighters.

 ▪ Oppose forcing fire fighters to be covered under Social Security.

 ▪ Believe the defined benefit retirement programs that cover our
   members must be protected.

 ▪ Favor a system of health care that is provided through employer-sponsored
   programs and have a plan to reduce the costs to our members and their employers.

 ▪ Support appointing judges who will keep fire fighter overtime laws in place
   and not overturn the Family Medical Leave Act (FLSA), collective bargaining, OSHA 
   coverage for public workers, ADA and other employment laws that would mean elimination
   of fire fighter overtime pay and many other workplace rights.

 ▪ Support authorization and full funding of the FIRE Act and SAFER grant programs.

 ▪ Oppose so-called paycheck protection measures that are scams to limit the
   power of workers in unions.

 ▪ Voted in favor of legislation to expand worker rights, guarantee overtime
   pay, raise the minimum wage and promote the ability to organize.

We believe we have a responsibility, as your elected union leaders, to take a position only based on these issues. At the same time, this union also celebrates your right and responsibility to weigh those positions against your basket of personal issues when you enter that voting booth.

Ultimately, I hope you understand why and how we choose the candidates we support. I also hope you understand why we cannot just stand on the sidelines and watch the game be played.

If we did, and if an anti-IAFF candidate was elected president, I would not be able to look you in the eyes if you were forced into mandatory Social Security coverage, or if your employer-paid health care plan got dropped and you were forced to start buying your own health care.

I wouldn’t be able to explain to your families why we supported the candidate who nominated a judge to the Supreme Court who voted to overturn the Garcia decision that protects fire fighters’ overtime pay, because overturning that law would mean tens of thousands of our members would be forced to work extra shifts, away from their families, without receiving a penny extra.

In the end, we build respect on both sides of the aisle and across the political spectrum by being an organization that stands with and supports our friends. Our presidential endorsement will fulfill both that objective and our responsibility.

Thank you and stay safe.

Click Here to Read President Schaitberger's Past Messages