Transition Time

Congratulations and thank you to all of our affiliates and members for the great work at so many levels. Because of your efforts, Election Night in the United States proved extraordinarily successful for our union.

FIREPAC-endorsed candidates won more than 90 percent of their races. The outcome proves that supporting our friends and opposing our enemies — regardless of their political party — is a winning approach that has built our increasingly powerful “IAFF Fire Fighters For” gold and black political brand.

Each election makes me a stronger believer in this union’s bedrock principal of not just supporting our friends, but taking on those who make it harder for you to do your jobs, and it feels damn good when we take out those who have worked against our members’ interests and future.

This principal was on display in so many elections up and down the ballot all over our country, but as an example of our combined efforts, in two important elections, we went after candidates who opposed our members.

In south Florida, former Hialeah Mayor Raul Martinez, a Democrat who took on our local every chance he got, ran for a seat in Congress. Martinez had repeatedly clashed with our Hialeah affiliate in contract negotiations and withheld retroactive pay raises.

So we came out in strong support of his Republican opponent Lincoln Diaz-Balart because he has been a longtime friend of our affiliates there.

We faced long odds, but the campaign turned as our message got out, and with the strong support of FIREPAC and our affiliates in south Florida, Martinez was defeated and Lincoln Diaz-Balart, another good friend of our members, will now go to Congress.

In Michigan, we took out Representative Tim Walberg, a Republican member of Congress. He cast the sole vote against our collective bargaining bill in the House Labor Committee. The committee approved our bill 42-1, despite Walberg’s solitary opposition. When it came time to take sides in this election, we made a point of taking him out — and now he’s gone.

Stories like these played out in Canada as well in the October 14 federal election, where our affiliates and members endorsed and worked for fire fighter-friendly candidates in the House of Commons. These efforts set the stage for the IAFF to work with members of Parliament from all parties to advance our Canadian legislative agenda.

In the United States, our support for Senators Barack Obama and Joe Biden contributed to an historic presidential election for this country. This election puts us in position to have access to the incoming Obama administration and both Democratic and Republican party leaders. But it will take some time to get the new administration and the hundreds of agencies and departments up and running, so we also need to be patient.

Internally at the IAFF, we are now focusing on the transition from the Bush to the Obama administration. We are identifying and prioritizing the legislation we need to get introduced in Congress, including moving our collective bargaining bill in the 111th Congress and the federal regulations we need to better serve our profession.

We are discussing potential changes in the structure of the government and providing input about who should fill critical positions at the Department of Labor, Department of Homeland Security, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health and other departments where decisions are made that affect the lives and livelihoods of our members.

Looking ahead, I ask you to recognize that we will be able to get things done with this friendly administration and Congress, but it will take time.

First, the new administration has to get up and running. The process will be the first Republican-to-Democrat administration transition in 16 years. There are more than 8,000 political appointments to be made. There will be policy reviews and priorities in every agency and department.

Most important, President-elect Obama needs to and will make the U.S. economy and a stimulus package to include financial help for our state and local governments this nation’s number-one priority. This union fully supports that approach because it is a critical issue for our affiliates and members who are so tied to the success or problems in local budgets and economic recovery.

Then we will have to move our agenda strategically. I fully expect great things for our members out of the 111th Congress and our next president.

But I ask you to be patient. Don’t expect that we rush out prematurely and make demands that will go unfulfilled. We are going to move our agenda tactically and decisively over the next year so we can maximize the leverage we’ve gained by getting so many friends elected and get every benefit possible for our members.

Happy Holidays. Stay Safe.

Click Here to Read President Schaitberger's Past Messages