New Ways to Serve Your Needs

For nearly a century, the IAFF has fought to protect the interests of professional fire fighters. The business of our union remains member service. We exist solely to improve the standard of living and quality of life for you and your family.

Traditionally, our battlefields have been in Congress, at City Halls and town meetings in every corner of our two great nations, at state and provincial legislatures, across the bargaining table, and on the picket lines. From reducing obscene work schedules to protecting fire fighters’ health and safety to improving salaries and benefits, we have fought hard and successfully. As we prepare for the challenges of the new century, the IAFF is poised to offer new and vibrant services to our membership.

Protecting the financial interests of professional fire fighters will always be a core responsibility of our union. Several months ago, I announced a bold initiative. Our union will soon enter a new arena and begin providing deferred compensation and other investment opportunities to our membership. Working with the IAFF Executive Board, a for-profit subsidiary has been established and chartered. The IAFF Financial Corporation is now a reality.

When we gather at our Biennial Convention in August, the IAFF Financial Corporation will unveil a host of investment opportunities. To succeed, the IAFF product line must earn your trust. Our staff is working tirelessly to build a deferred compensation and IRA rollover product that will become the industry standard.

I can make that boast for several reasons. The IAFF Financial Corporation has only one shareholder: the IAFF. A board of directors that is comprised of IAFF principal officers and district vice presidents with two outside directors manages the corporation. The Board of Trustees, who control the investment decisions and are charged with structuring plan offerings, are all IAFF officers who have served as fiduciaries on large public retirement system funds. They are already your top elected representatives and have your interests at heart.

Our professional staff is already the absolute best. We have retained a leading consultant with a substantial union and pension fund client base and who serves on the management committee of Merrill Lynch. Our corporate general counsel is a nationally acclaimed expert and functions as one of only 15 pension attorneys who advise the IRS on deferred investment issues. Recently, we completed our management troika by hiring an executive director who most recently served as president of an institutional money management firm and previously was the chief investment officer for the ICMA 457 program.

Our goal is to provide the very best investment products at the lowest possible cost. Unlike other corporations, we do not have to sacrifice customer service or shortchange plan participants to guarantee a profit to shareholders. Over the next several months, we will be engaged in developing products, educating our members and establishing a marketing strategy. While I appreciate and am encouraged by the onslaught of phone calls, emails and requests that have poured into IAFF headquarters on this issue, I ask for your patience.

I am committed to doing this project right. As a result, we are meticulously reviewing potential money managers, record keepers, custodial banks and other entities that will provide services and form the backbone of our product line. IAFF Financial Corp. is conducting focus groups and developing surveys to gauge membership needs and priorities.

Ultimately, I envision IAFF Financial Corporation offering members a full line of investment and financial services ranging from all types of insurances to home mortgages. In all venues, we intend to outperform the competition. These will be products developed by the best, for the best.

Our commitment to professional fire fighters should not end once they retire. In every issue of this publication, we salute our retired brothers and sisters. After acknowledging their service and dedication, what happens? In some cases, affiliates allow retirees to maintain membership. Many local unions, however, do not offer that option. Consequently, many of our retirees simply fade away. To me, that is unacceptable.

The institutional knowledge, enthusiasm and commitment of our retired members are invaluable commodities. We estimate that there are well over 150,000 former IAFF members who have lost contact with our union. This represents a vast untapped resource. On the national level, we need to give these folks a way to continue their lifelong commitment to the fire service and our issues. This could take the form of an enormous grassroots political network. Our retirees could also aid affiliates in charitable and community services projects, as well as help out in times of crisis.

It is imperative that we establish a vehicle to maintain retirees’ affiliation, especially since many IAFF members have longer retirements than active careers. That’s why delegates at Convention will be asked to consider a resolution establishing an IAFF Alumni Association – another vehicle to extend the IAFF umbrella.

The IAFF Alumni would serve as our response to AARP and would provide retirees pertinent information through the web and newsletters, discounted goods and services, and an opportunity to remain connected to their union and the fire service. This is especially important since AARP is the most vocal proponent of mandatory social security coverage. IAFF Alumni would allow us to get our message out to retired fire fighters. Both IAFF and its local affiliates would benefit by having an established database of retirees who could be called upon to assist on various projects and issues.

IAFF Alumni members would not be afforded any membership privileges within the IAFF. It would be a separate organization under the auspices of the General President’s office. There would be neither a separate governing structure nor would local retiree clubs be chartered. The IAFF Alumni would represent a win-win combination that could significantly increase our political clout and influence at all levels of government.

We are considering other ways to increase our political strength and speak directly to our members. One of the issues foremost on my mind is the longstanding disenfranchisement of union members on one major issue: the right to own a firearm. This International recognizes that gun owners and sportsmen are full participants in our society. We fully support our members who own firearms and engage in a variety of hunting and other sporting pursuits.

That’s why I led a fight at the Executive Council of the AFL-CIO to create an organization for union members who are also gun enthusiasts. Dozens of other International unions have joined me in creating the Union Sportsmen of America (USA). This new club will offer members the opportunity to receive the latest information on hunting, firearm safety, union-made products, discounted goods and services, and a full array of benefits similar to the NRA.

The value of USA is simple. Union members who own guns will finally have a voice. They will enjoy an organization that embraces both their sporting avocation and fights to ensure that their workplace needs are met. No longer will trade union members have to choose between their union and their support for firearms.

This new age presents both challenges and opportunities. In all areas, the IAFF is thinking and operating out of the box. Our union is proudly stepping into exciting new ventures and projects to better serve the members we are honored to represent. Our battlefields and issues may change with time, but our commitment to member service remains constant. As always, the IAFF is taking care of business for you.

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