We have been on a remarkable journey this year. Following the elections in the fall of 2010, when a number of extremists took office, our opponents came after us in 2011 with everything they had. What started out as an attack on pensions turned into an all-out war on those who work for a living.

Right away we recognized that to fight this well-organized, well-financed, well-coordinated attack we needed to be both strategic and forceful in our response. We recognized that it would take the resources at every level of this great union to protect our members’ rights, wages and benefits. 

So in March, your Executive Board voted unanimously to allocate the financial resources to respond to the vicious attacks, and we launched our Fighting Back effort.

As we look back on 2011, I can say with all honesty that our efforts have made a difference for so many affiliates and members because we did not sit back — we fought back.

In New York City we joined the Uniformed Firefighters Association Local 94 and the Uniformed Fire Officers Association Local 854 for a historic march and rally and convinced billionaire Mayor Michael Bloomberg to halt his plan to close 20 fire companies.

In Oklahoma our members preserved binding arbitration.

In Massachusetts they preserved collective bargaining for health care.

In Florida we joined our members to stop Governor Rick Scott’s attempt to decimate pensions and take away dues deduction.

In Michigan our members protected their right to binding arbitration. And in two communities in Michigan, voters kept their career fire departments and rejected plans to combine fire and police departments by implementing Public Safety Officers.

In Nebraska our members preserved collective bargaining for public employees.

In Pennsylvania, our affiliates were able to go on the offensive and fire fighters finally got the cancer presumption law that they deserve, after 25 years of work.

In so many other states — from Iowa to Arizona to Tennessee — our members were able to block anti-labor bills intended to destroy their rights.

Our fights continue on other fronts.

In Alabama, where the last act of the state’s former governor was to stop dues deduction, the IAFF stepped in to make sure the rights of our members weren’t trampled by filing a lawsuit and getting an injunction to block implementation of the law, and we protected the rights of our members to have union dues deducted.

In New Hampshire our members are continuing their fight to protect the basic rights and benefits they have earned over the years and with the critical, dangerous work they do every single day.

We continue to fight politicians who claim to be friends of those who work for a living, like Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter, a Democrat who continues to ignore a legally-binding arbitration award granted to the Philadelphia Fire Fighters and Paramedics Union Local 22, has tried to strip the rights of EMS workers and has continually browned out fire companies and continually closed fire companies.

But nowhere were our efforts more evident than in Ohio, where the margin of victory in that state’s November 8 referendum to reject an assault on collective bargaining rights was even greater than the most optimistic projections — 62 percent of voters stood with the fire fighters, police officers and teachers in their state, sending the overreaching legislation passed by Governor John Kasich and his ilk to the trash heap.

The incredible work of our affiliate leadership all across Ohio and the willingness of our membership to make the calls, walk the neighborhoods and knock on the doors and urge friends and neighbors to Vote No on Issue 2 made the difference. In the end, the image of our members and the tremendous work you all do, told the story and persuaded the voters that the governor was wrong.

I am proud that the IAFF has weighed in with financial support, boots on the ground, television ads, campaign mailings, campaign videos, e-mail blasts, op-eds, letters to the editor and online support using social media in so many of our Fighting Back campaigns.

Now our journey will take us to Wisconsin, where our locals, state association and this International will do everything it takes to get Governor Scott Walker out of office. Efforts already are underway to gather the 540,208 valid signatures needed by January 17 to trigger a recall vote, and our members are a central part of that effort.

I know that over the past year so many of you have worked double duty, protecting your communities first and then punching in again to protect your rights and benefits from the unprecedented and coordinated wave of political attacks. I am so thankful for your hard work, which has inspired me to remain completely focused on defending our membership across two great countries.

I hope you realize our diligence is paying off. Sure, we lost a few important fights in 2011, but we are winning, too. Standing together we are also changing the conversation, changing the dynamic of the debate and changing the minds of the voters and politicians who know how important you are to your communities.

When these fights began, the prevailing talk in the media was about reigning in the “greedy” public sector workers. Now, because of our efforts together, we are beginning to open the public’s eyes and they are beginning to see and understand that extremist politicians are over-reaching. We are getting our message across because we are on the offensive. And for that, I thank all of you for your extra work.

As we close out the year, I also want to thank the hundreds of generous donors who helped us launch the IAFF Charitable Foundation in August. Our efforts together will help us build the Foundation for years to come, and gives us a real tool to help our affiliates and their families when they need us most — today, tomorrow and for generations to come.

We can be proud of what we accomplished in 2011, but our journey isn’t over.  Have a happy and safe holiday season, and get ready for another challenging year in 2012.