Every IAFF affiliate has its own story about the challenges it has faced — from forming a union to battling bad chiefs, anti-union mayors and city managers, and inept city or county councils. This International has faced similar struggles at the federal level.

And yet, at every level, this union has achieved tremendous success. In fact, in the 90 years since this amazing union was formed, we have overcome those hurdles and built an organization that, at a time when many unions are struggling to survive, is growing and getting stronger.

With our 90th anniversary upon us, this is an appropriate time to urge you not to take our past for granted. I urge you to do something that is out of character for most of you on this job.

I want you to brag.

Our members need to know that because of the commitment of IAFF leaders, this union is responsible for establishing laws that help us do our jobs more safely and protect our families when one of our own makes the ultimate sacrifice.

It wasn’t the chiefs, councils or city managers who woke up one day and decided to do something for fire fighters. It’s our local leaders who have driven the financial success that has raised our members’ standard of living, raised their level of benefits, provided for a secure retirement and enforced their rights on the job.

It’s time we passed on to everyone that it wasn’t the tooth fairy who gave us presumptive laws, national training programs, PSOB benefits, defined pension plans or DROP programs. It was this union at the state, provincial and federal levels.

This union said to Congress, “Do you know that COPS bill that has sent hundreds of millions of dollars to police departments around the country? It’s time we do something like that for fire fighters.”

Now we have the FIRE Act and the SAFER program. In this budget year alone, SAFER will provide $190 million to hire fire fighters, courtesy of the efforts of Representative David Price (D-NC), chair of the House Appropriations Committee and a great friend of our union.

Price also stepped in after President Bush’s budget slashed funding for the FIRE Act, boosting funding to $750 million to help fire departments across the country train and equip our members.

Our members need to know that we’re the union that wrote the Health Care Enhancement for Local Public Safety Officers (HELPS) bill, which will provide upwards of $3 billion in savings to our members over the next decade.

Our members need to know that this union passed Hometown Heroes in 2003 and, for three years, the U.S. Department of Justice didn’t pay a single benefit to a single family. Now we’ve won that battle, too, and all claims are being processed and paid.

You could go on with lists of dozens of victories achieved at the state, provincial and local levels that have benefited our members, as well.

Ultimately, what every member needs to know is that we achieved those victories through political and legislative action. And that’s why it’s critical that we continue to build our power and influence in politics at every level.

Because, even with these successes, we have so much more to do. At the top of our agenda is collective bargaining. Our political action has now put us in a position — after decades of work — to have both houses of Congress approve the most important piece of workers’ rights legislation ever for fire fighters.

The first real extension of bargaining rights in this country in more than 50 years is on the verge of becoming the law of the land.

Our House Bill H.R. 980 was introduced with 280 co-sponsors — including 70 Republicans. It passed the committee with only one dissenting vote, 42-1. Then it went to the House floor in July and was passed by an unbelievable margin of 314-97, with a majority of Democrats and Republicans in the House supporting the measure.

As you receive this magazine, our bill will be in the Senate. With the leadership of Democrat Ted Kennedy and Republican Judd Gregg, we have 60-plus votes, including 11 Republican co- sponsors. So, we’re confident we’ll be victorious there, as well.

Passage of this law will be the single-most important legislative achievement of this union and for about 50,000 fire fighters in jurisdictions throughout the southern United States where collective bargaining is not allowed.

We are writing a new chapter in our history now with the success of this critical law. I want to make sure that once we win, our members understand how we got that done.

Help pass on the heritage. Stay safe.

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