Piss & Vinegar

    At one time, I believe the IAFF’s mission was to represent the firefighter who risked life and limb for low wages in unsafe conditions. The organization fought hard, became very strong and won many a political victory, making a firefighter’s career very competitive and desirable, not unlike a pro-athlete’s. It is frequently called the best job in the world, (and when we actually get to fight some fire, I would wholeheartedly agree). Even today, if our profession needs a new piece of safety equipment, it is invented and provided, thanks to both union efforts and ultimately, to the tax-payer.

    In many departments, we are well paid, and in some, we live in luxury. But while the rest of the population faces cutbacks, furloughs and layoffs, union-biased  firefighters are indignant at the prospect of another paltry cost-of-living increase, and they angrily demand the next higher notch in wages and benefits. Most of my colleagues seem content to ignore the fact that our cousin, United Auto Workers (UAW) was mostly responsible for bankrupting the domestic car companies. The fact that they share  a similar attitude is no coincidence: The IAFF is just another one of 56 unions associated with the AFL-CIO, or the “American Federation of Labor - Congress of Industrial Unions”. Faced with such selfishness from firefighters, one has to wonder if expressions like “civil servant” and “community first” are just hurdle phrases used by candidates in interviews.

   
    It’s often said of unions that they protect the lazy guy. While lazy doesn’t survive for long in the fire service, the union mentality certainly promotes a sense of entitlement. The concept of seniority is deeply seated in the fire service, and it’s well suited to the advantage of those who would use it for personal gain, and to the disadvantage of those who would not.

    Those who are prone to the culture of entitlement give us company officers who are content to sit with their feet up while the work is done by less senior members. They’re often more interested in being canceled en route than how their crew can help when they get on scene. They’re the same guys who give junior members shit because of their political party affiliation. They indoctrinate and intimidate the “probies” or the “boots” with admonitions like “The Democrat Party is the party of your profession”. Confronted with this comment from a Lieutenant about a decade ago, I responded that I could not allow my profession to dictate my vote. He has uttered nary a word to me since.
 
    My colleagues are sometimes heard complaining that a cop denied them “professional courtesy”, - the corrupt notion that law enforcement officials should give their brothers-in-blue a break, - and wrote them a speeding ticket anyway.    

    In executive level politics, the IAFF has become a giant with the power to force our profession into a similar condition of unsustainability as the big 3 auto companies.

    At the line level, it has become, not a brotherhood, but a boy’s-club fraternity with a status decal for your monster truck.

    My own vehicles do not sport the decal. That makes me no less a civil-servant, but perhaps it makes me more. My brothers are firefighters, not Union activists.