The Miami Four According to the Miami Herald, in 2017 “a group of Miami firefighters working at historic Charles Hadley Park Fire Station 12, thought it would be funny to draw penises on framed family pictures of a co-worker who wasn’t at the station that night.” The coworker was Lieutenant Robert Webster, a black man. […]

Charges Stem from Afghan Incident IAFF Chief of Operations Mathew Golsteyn has been charged with premeditated murder in the killing of an Afghan man in 2011 while he was deployed there. Read more about Golsteyn here. The news of the killing isn’t really news. The Times reports that the Army investigated the killing in 2013 […]

IAFF Issues Lukewarm Wildfire Statement   Harold Schaitberger, General President of the International Association of Fire Fighters, has remained silent as Trump has dismantled middle class America, especially unions and working families. Never forget that Schaitberger caused the IAFF not to endorse in the 2016 presidential election, the sure sign of a coward obsessed with […]

So Much for Leading From the Front A favorite piece of American history is the vision of 56-year-old, Brigadier General Theodore Roosevelt, Jr., hobbling Utah Beach with a cane as troops landed on D-Day. He was the oldest man in the invasion and the only general to land by sea on that day. Roosevelt was […]

Jim Lee Set to Retire Canadian Jim Lee, IAFF Chief of Staff, is set to retire in the coming months, having served in that role for the past several years. He was previously the principal assistant to the General Secretary-Treasurer and ran for that position before bowing out at the prospect of Tidal Wave Edzo. […]

Diane Cotter Leads From Without Most IAFF members are under the impression that their union is a fierce and vigorous protector of their safety and health. Have a seat, we have some bad news. Harold Schaitberger’s IAFF long ago gave up its once premier role in protecting us. The date when that happened is certain. […]

We Know Him (Much) Better Than You Do Four current and (very) longtime IAFF members who also come from IAFF General President Harold Schaitberger’s home local, number 2068, managed to be in the same place at the same time for lunch this week. Among the four, they represent 163 years of IAFF and union membership. […]

Mathew Golsteyn, Chief of Operations During my time as an IAFF member, the position now known as “chief of operations” has been populated with low-key civilians or folks with a labor background. IAFF General Secretary-Treasurer Ed Kelly changed all that. He tapped Mathew Golsteyn, a former U.S. Army Major who served with the Special Forces, […]

Too Important to be Bothered The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent Janus decision, a bit of a win for anti-union forces, is said to be another marker on the road to making unions irrelevant.  That remains to be seen, but one sure way to weaken labor’s importance is to get to the point where leaders no […]

The Supreme Court and Right to Work The Time’s reports it:  “The Supreme Court dealt a major blow on Wednesday to organized labor. By a 5-to-4 vote, with the more conservative justices in the majority, the court ruled that government workers who choose not to join unions may not be required to help pay for […]