In a September 20, 2002 letter to all IAFF Affiliate Presidents, IAFF General President Schaitberger made it very clear what their organization's true policy is on their members serving as volunteers -- it's unacceptable.
In the letter he rescinds comments he made in a July 25 letter written to Rep. Felix Grucci (R-NY) and brokered by the NVFC, saying the letter was, "an ill-advised effort to mollify our opponents, and the should never have been sent."
In the most recent letter, he also reaffirmed the provisions of their organizations constitution on this issue. "Although an IAFF member may make a personal choice to join a volunteer fire department, that personal choice is one that can have serious consequences under our Constitution, including the loss of IAFF membership," he said.
In recent months, there has been an increasing trend of local IAFF affiliates threatening to take action against their members if they do not stop volunteering in their local communities. The NVFC has received reports from concerned firefighters in Maryland, Virginia, New York, California, Oregon, Washington State, Florida, and Ontario, Canada.
The NVFC continues to strongly oppose this policy and work steadfastly to see this issue resolved.
A copy of the letter is below:
September 20, 2002
Dear IAFF Affiliate Presidents:
I am writing to you in order to clarify and correct a letter I authorized to be written and sent over my signature to Congressman Felix Grucci on July 25, 2002, relating to IAFF members serving as volunteers. This letter has unfortunately been used and misused by those who wish to create difficulties for IAFF locals exercising their rights under our Constitution and By-Laws in dealing with IAFF members who choose to volunteer. I regret that, as prepared and sent, the Grucci letter has caused serious concerns for some of our affiliates. I want to set the record straight.
Earlier this year our friends in Congress had been strongly warning us that a campaign of confusion and misinformation regarding the IAFF's position on volunteers was underway. This campaign, in their judgment, would jeopardize our standing on Capitol Hill, and thereby seriously threaten our entire legislative agenda, including national collective bargaining and our staffing initiative. With increasing impatience, they encouraged us to respond to these issues, both to protect our legislative interests and to alleviate the extreme pressure that our Congressional allies were confronting for supporting the IAFF's position. The letter was generated in response to those concerns.
I can recall few issues during my thirty-two year union career that have caused as much scrutiny and searing public criticism as this issue has created in the last year. This attention was the product of an outside smear campaign focused on several factors. Among these were the IAFF Executive Board's rightful decision to declare a number of volunteer fire departments as rival organizations in December of 2000, as well as the decision by several locals in the United States and Canada to appropriately exercise their rights under our Constitution to file charges against IAFF members who were serving as volunteer, part-time or paid on-call fire fighters.
Both of these situations resulted in intense media coverage. Much of the media attention had been generated and aggravated by a few national volunteer fire organizations in an effort to undermine the IAFF's historical stance on this issue. Newspaper editorials condemned the IAFF, and the volunteer organizations orchestrated a letter-writing campaign of misinformation to Congress, and to state and provincial legislatures, demanding a political response. In the wake of September 11, some politicians even had the gall to suggest that IAFF members who sought to enforce our Constitution lacked community spirit. Some Congressional opponents also attempted to paint our position as a deliberate affront to President Bush's call to the nation for every American to volunteer their time to some public service.
Consequently, our opponents in the United States Congress were poised in early July to introduce an unprecedented Congressional resolution that would have censured and condemned the IAFF. Recognizing the Congressional action on the resolution was imminent, I authorized senior staff to draft and send a letter over my signature which was intended to deal only with the employment rights of career fire fighters under U.S. law if they were expelled from the IAFF for serving as volunteers.
Although the letter was intended to clarify the confusion and misinformation that had been generated on Capitol Hill, unfortunately it did not accurately reflect the union's or my position regarding this matter and created more problems for some of our affiliates, than resolve the narrow issues it was intended to address. Due in part to the extraordinary time constraints involved, the letter was poorly written and hastily sent. In retrospect, it was an ill-advised effort to mollify our opponents, and the letter should never have been sent.
As straightforward as I can be with you, I should have been more diligent to ensure that the process of drafting and sending a letter of such importance, over my signature, reflected the union's as well as my personally held views.
I can think of no other issue that has aroused as much passion, or has been the subject of such strongly held beliefs, as the issue of IAFF members who volunteer as fire fighters and paramedics. Perhaps because of my own early struggle to create an IAFF local in a combination fire department that was forced to compete with volunteer fire fighters for equipment and resources, I am particularly sensitive to the internal strife that can arise when our members serve as volunteers.
The IAFF Constitution makes it clear that IAFF members can be subject to charges and internal discipline if they serve as volunteers. The Convention delegates who added this provision to our Constitution clearly recognized that, all too often, jurisdictions rely upon the services of volunteers to undermine the efforts of our own members to obtain the resources necessary to support a properly staffed and adequately equipped full time career fire department. As a union representing the interests of paid professional fire fighters, we can and must promote the interests of our members by strongly advocating career fire departments across North America.
Let me be as clear as possible. We as a union, by Convention actions, do not represent or condone volunteer, part-time or paid on-call fire fighters. This is also my personal position, as it has been from the time that I first joined the IAFF. It remains my position today as your General President, and I have reiterated this position to affiliate leaders on a number of occasions.
As General President, I have the responsibility to interpret the IAFF Constitution and Bylaws, and to decide any appeals brought before my office from a trial board's decision regarding a misconduct charge. Though I have not yet been required to decide an appeal from a trial board decision pertaining to this issue, you should harbor no doubt that I shall apply the foregoing principles to any dispute that is brought before my office involving an IAFF member's support or participation in a volunteer fire department or association.
It is time to reaffirm the provisions of our Constitution on this critical issue to those both inside and outside of our organization. Although an IAFF member may make a personal choice to join a volunteer fire department, that personal choice is one that can have serious consequences under our Constitution, including the loss of IAFF membership.
In closing, as the General President of a union charged with promoting the interests of paid, full-time professional fire fighters and paramedics, I will continue to work vigorously to make certain that all IAFF members enjoy a safe working environment, just compensation, and are afforded the rights they deserve.
Fraternally,
Harold A. Schaitberger
General President
Cc: Vincent J. Bollon, General Secretary-Treasurer
IAFF Executive Board
