Bursting the Bubble

July-August, 2005 International Fire Fighter

Getting outside the “bubble” — out of our IAFF headquarters building in Washington, DC and on the road to talk with you in your stations and with your leaders at state and provincial conventions and regional meetings is an important way for me to better understand what your issues are and what’s really affecting you on the frontlines.

Talking with IAFF leaders and members keeps me focused, so we never get complacent, and so we keep our perspective on what matters to you, the members who pay the freight to keep this union running.

What I see is that we have built a powerful and influential union, and it’s helping us win battles on many fronts.

Denver, CO Local 858 President Mike Rogers reports in this issue on their contract victory that we played a supporting part in securing. And we report on a similar victory for Montgomery County, MD Local 1664 that improves its members’ pensions and other benefits.

At the state and provincial level, Arkansas experienced a big victory in getting a dues deduction bill passed and signed. In Texas, 61 locals won the right to meet and confer, for the first time since 1947. And our brothers and sisters in Manitoba, Canada won important presumptive cancer legislation.

At the federal level, we were able to pass our SAFER staffing legislation, and we’re now working to increase the funding in the coming budget for 2006. And our HELPS Retirees Act (see page 18) is off to a very good start with strong bi-partisan support.

But for every victory we’ve achieved, we still have many of our affiliates engaged in tough battles with bad mayors or non-supportive city councils.

In Detroit, the mayor wants to eliminate 147 fire fighter jobs. In Providence, our members have gone four years without a contract and are now moving forward on a dual path of negotiations and arbitration in an attempt to protect their pensions from the cuts the mayor has proposed. In the twin cities of Minneapolis/St. Paul, the mayors are pursuing similar tracks that attack our staffing levels.

In California, the “Governator” has re-initiated his anti-union “paycheck deception” attack as a November ballot initiative, among other anti-union measures to be voted on while readying his attacks on our retirement plans. In Missouri, with one stroke of the pen in his first week in office, the new governor eliminated collective bargaining rights for public employees — and the newly-elected governors in Indiana and Kentucky followed that lead. In dozens of states, defined benefit pensions are under attack. And our federal fire fighters are facing base closures and a cram-down from the Pentagon on changes to the National Security Personnel System that will eliminate our members’ rights.

These stories show the battles we fight together, and I’m proud to have the personal opportunity, as I travel, in so many places, to tell the story of what this great union means to its members, how it helps in these fights. I’m proud to have the opportunity to show that it works to help them share in the financial success of this country, to protect their jobs and ensure they have fair employee rights, to have the power to win generous retirement systems, and to ensure their families are protected in times of economic and physical disaster.

Every IAFF member should know the role this union plays in helping to improve their lives and livelihoods at the local, state, provincial and federal levels.

So what does your IAFF do? We bring you together as a brotherhood or sisterhood in the strongest, most powerful union of fire fighters in the world.

Our union brings you the political clout to elect fire fighter-friendly politicians, regardless of party affiliation, at every level — critical because your wages, benefits, staffing levels and working conditions are controlled by elected leaders.

We sit on policy and rule making bodies that develop fire fighter and EMS standards for health, safety and scope of work, and we develop wellness initiatives, new equipment and gear to decrease fatalities and injuries.

We provide the best HazMat and WMD training programs available for free to fire departments around the country, and provide continuous leadership training to ensure that local leaders have the resources and knowledge necessary to do the best job possible.

We provide financial analyses of your municipal government, as well as wage and benefit comparisons during contract negotiations and arbitrations.

We assess your city’s response and operational capabilities using our expert GIS analysts and mapping software to help you fight for proper staffing and to battle short-sighted attempts to cut stations or jobs.

We help develop public relations programs to assist affiliates in fights at the local level.

We provide legal services that protect the rights of IAFF leaders when they are illegally disciplined or fired for standing up for you, and we go after those whose negligence causes physical harm and even the death of our members.

And we have developed the IAFF Financial Corporation to provide you with a variety of financial services including the best deferred compensation program, a quality post employment health plan, a home mortgage program, and a group discount on home and auto insurance.

As I continue to travel the continent and talk to members on the floor and leaders in the halls, I will keep bringing back to our committed staff the stories of what you are facing on the frontlines, and we will continue to revise, retool, reinvent and refresh the services we deliver.

Status quo is not what you expect or deserve from your union. And status quo will never be our standard. It’s our job, on your behalf, to stay committed to finding new ways of doing it better, doing more, and expecting nothing less than excellence. I want to assure you that we are committed, like you, to always being on the frontlines for you.

God bless and stay safe. 

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