Posted on 11/10/2007 10:15:21 PM PST by FFforFreedom
A few words for those who care about American fire fighters, the fire fighter's union, fire fighter politics, and the Democrat Party.
Career fire fighters are predominately conservative. The union leadership is predominately liberal. We are being misrepresented. Our money is pushing politics and politicians we don't believe in, and yes it's largely our own fault.
The yellow signs stating fire fighter's for Kerry in the last election and fire fighter's for Dodd in this election stirs this fire fighter to provide you with some insight and some facts on this subject.
International Association of Fire Fighters:
Represents approximately 80% of career fire fighters in this country (270,000)
The president is Harold Schaitberger, who I just saw on television, sitting next to Dodd in Iowa at a fund raiser.
The union leadership is made up of what we term the one percenters. These are the union leaders which are far more liberal than the rank and file which pays their paychecks.
There are approximately 3 to 4 times more volunteer fire fighters in this country than career which the IAFF does not represent or support.
The IAFF is anti volunteer, has it written into their constitution that their members may not volunteer as fire fighters in their local communities. Locals and cities around the country are passing contracts barring their fire fighters from volunteering with the penalty of loosing their job.
They have never endorsed a Republican president. Harold Schaitberger, president of the IAFF, stated in his speech to the Democratic Leadership Committee "Coming Back to Our Roots." This speech was billed as how to get white males to vote Democrat. 87% of the membership is moderate to conservative 44% are registered republicans 29% are registered democrats 70% are gun owners We work two jobs, have families, got to church, invest, and have summer homes.
They claim to be bipartisan but PAC records will show that while contributing a small portion of their money to Republicans they overwhelmingly supporting Dems.
Schaitberger:
President of IAFF Spends dues money to travel with Dem Candidates Co chair campaign manager for Kerry in 03 Was simultaniously on the board of the 527 educational PAC Voices for working families. This broke FEC law. Lied to the American public when he stated the membership was widely polled before endorsing Kerry. Maxed out his personal campaign contributions to the likes of Kerry and Boxer. Appointed head of the AFL CIO political strategy wing in 03. Helped orchistrate the funneling of dues money into AFL CIO umbrella PAC funds. This action essentially takes conservative money and funnels it into swing states to support get out the vote activities and 527 PACs aimed at the politics of personal distruction.
There are some big issues on the table. These issues are effecting many of you in the form of taxes, politics, and thwarting your state legislatures.
The big issues on the table are: State Right to Work Laws The volunteer fire service Civil service law vs. affirmative action in hiring Collective Bargaining The ability to force money from fire fighters to fund politics they don't believe in.
The solutions to these problems: National Right to Work Legislation A national anti volunteer descrimination law. A national law making it illegal for a bargaining entity to mandate affiliation to an organization beyond the local level in order to participate in the bargaining process.
The IAFF and Dodd:
The IAFF is supporting Dodd because they know they would loose too many members if they go with Hillary. They will support what ever democrat wins the primary. They will attack what ever Republican wins the primary period.
FDNY and Rudy:
My intent is not to support or discount Rudy on in this post.
As for FDNY UFA 94 and their president Cassidy, conservatives should temper their urge to attack them. Cassidy and UFA 94 members bucked the larger union and endorsed Bush in the last election. This was a huge blow to the IAFF, and I thought it was delicious. Like most local unions, they have an ambivilent relationship with their city management. You might find these guys attacking Rudy and endorsing Fred. They're predominately conservative and they have more mocksy than even our Texas fire fighter who just rolled over instead of forcing their locals to push the state for an endorsement.
This is a complicated subject. Many of the statements I've made would take lengthy posts to explain. The gist of it is, fire fighters are generally conservative. Union leaders predominately liberal and are more liberal when working for the state and national affiliates.
Local associations are a constitutional right.
Mandated affiliation of a member to outside organizaitons in order to negotiate or vote on a contract is disgusting and a breech of political freedom.
Fire fighting is predominately a local issue not a federal issue with a few acceptions pertaining to national security and disaster response.
The ability for a government entity to collectively bargain should be put to the tax payer in the form of a referendum. This is not a competetive industry. The tax payer does not have a choice of fire service providers. Collectively bargaining is not a right. It's a privaladge provided by the tax payer.
I hope this made a tid bit of sense. It's a hodge podge of issues. I've been wanting to get something out there. I guess this is a start.
I’m sure this post is full of spelling errors. I accidently posted it before editing. I hope you get something out of it.
Thank you for your post. It is very informational and contains much of which I wasn’t aware.
Your union sounds a lot like the unions I’ve belonged to in the past - the union bosses like to rub shoulders with the powerful and just take for granted the people who do all the work and pay the dues. Hasn’t changed much in 35 years, I see.
I know exactly what your talking about, it was like that when I worked at a school in New York, the union was so liberal, I actually wrote them and told them not to send me their newsletter anymore but to no avail, they still sent it. I hated being forced to belong to such an organization.
Well done, sir. Be safe.
Yes,
I find the unions all essentially work the same.
I’ve been researching the issues and politics in this area for a number of years. If anything comes up concerning fire fighters and politics I’d be happy to answer any questions I have information on.
Take Care!
Thanks for the support. A lot of folks aren’t aware of the advances we’ve made with the help of the National Right to Work Foundation and Supreme Court Decisions.
Teachers unions and most other unions, by law, can not force a member to be a union member. The Hudson and Beck decisions was supposed to end this practice. Locals may only mandate an agency fee equivilent of what it costs to negotiate a the contract. What the locals are doing to circumvent this is manipulating their books to force high agency fees from non members. Just recently some Kentucky fire fighters won a law suit in which they recieved back agency fees they had paid and forced a suspension of all agency fees being charged. By law these locals must open their books and have an independent audit in order to determine the agency fee. Many locals disregard this and go unchallenged.
The National Right to Work Foundation is an awesome organization. They are the only organization that effectively challenges the unions in court and wins. These decisions are helping shape our future freedoms. These are 1st and 14th amendment cases which protect our political freedom and the political system.
The fundamental problem with the unions is liberal courts have granted these organizations unprecedented rights citing the 1st and 14th amendment to freedom of affiliation. The unions argue their 1st amendment rights with the total disreguard for an individual’s 1st amendment right to political association.
Liberal legislatures enable unions to pry money from members. These unions fund and support these legislator. Democrat legislators effectively pass laws to help force money from individual citizens who oppose them. It’s a scam.
Google the Davenport Decision. Read the arguments. It exposes this issue. It was just argued and won by the National Right to Work Foundation and the Washington Educations Association concerning Pay Check Protection.
God Bless and keep you.
Thanks!
If anything comes up in the current election concerning the fire fighters union feel free to ping me.
God Bless!
Excellent piece, you’re exactly right. Years ago when I went on a large department the Union would have had a hard time enlisting members had it not been for a good health care plan (which we payed for) because like you say, the majority of firefighters are and were conservative.
It’s very unfortunate. I don’t excuse their ignorance, but most fire fighters couldn’t tell you the names of the leadership past the local level much less the issues.
It’s a bit pathetic.
We’ve got radicals leftists using conservative money to push their agenda.
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