IAFF: Best Labor Day in 20 Years!
Cause to rejoice.
There are basically two kinds of people when it comes to reacting to the arrival of the FBI, DOL and the U.S. Attorney at the IAFF.
The first group are outraged that their selfish actions have been outed and publicized.
The second group, much larger, are IAFF members and their supporters, relieved that help has finally arrived.
Harold Schaitberger, president-for-life, is the undisputed leader of the first group.
For all of his presidency he has been shaking us down in one way or another.
He’s the thief but the so-called executive board and the useless trustees have been driving the getaway car for years.
Schaitberger Inc.
Showing his complete disregard for propriety and ethics, early on he awarded himself a lucrative pension while he was still employed by the union.
His salary was over $300,000 plus an unlimited expense account, as he was also wining and dining himself and friends at the most expensive steak houses around the country.
Only a tiny minority of these fat cat dinners is with elected officials or other appropriate contacts.
It’s nothing more than dining out on our dime.
These dinners are frequently over $1,000 and many are much more, some ten times that.
For the past 20 years, our union has been wholly owned and operated as a for-profit entity by Harold Schaitberger.
The profit of course was his.
On the Way to Bankruptcy
Despite the many dues increases the IAFF has demanded over the past decades, the board has dipped into our emergency reserve fund to the tune of $700,000 simply to balance the current budget.
Why?
During the period of the Schaitberger presidency nearly every elected board member has willingly assisted him in feathering his plush nest while he returned the favor by awarding them raises and a superior retirement package.
They, too, have made a mockery of the rules by claiming phony per diem payments while awarding themselves an illegal increase in severance pay.
Many of them requested and received travel stipends when they never left their homes.
Schaitberger did it, too.
D.C. Confidential
The hallmark of the Schaitberger presidency has been his total determination to operate in secrecy and to deny the membership any information about his schemes and improper activities.
Anyone who spoke a word outside the inner circle was labeled a “rat” by him and his band of thugs who helped to enforce his secrecy obsession.
He has been helped in this by legal counsels who tell him what he wants to hear while marking communications “attorney-client privilege” so that the destruction of our union has been done under the cloak of questionable legal ethics.
Our law firm of note has engaged in the same sort of conflicted back scratching that is the very foundation of Schaitberger’s IAFF.
Even board matters are shrouded in secrecy; when information leaks out, Schaitberger engages in a childish tirade that would make Kim Jong-un jealous.
The Deals
If Schaitberger’s IAFF were a television show it would be called “let’s make a deal (for me)”
Time and again he has sought deal after deal usually selling our integrity down the river in order to generate even more income for his flagrantly inappropriate exploitation of our finances.
We used to be a union devoted to the safety and health of our members, not any more.
The oversight/watchdog role died when Schaitberger began accepting payments from fire/rescue manufacturers; we even advertise for them on our homepage.
Question: Does the Airline Pilots union advertise for Boeing?
Answer: Of course not.
You cannot be an ethical advocate if you are taking cash from those you are tasked with watching.
Where did all the money from these unethical deals go?
How could it be that with all of his sweetheart dealmaking we still can’t live within our budget?
Schaitberger even turned to shaking down the Muscular Dystrophy Association, forcing them to pay millions of dollars to the IAFF, dollars which were simply added to his “I’ll do what I want slush fund.”
Thankfully, the Federal Bureau of investigation, the United States Attorney, and the Department of Labor are finally taking a look at some of Schaitberger’s improper and unethical actions which benefited him at the expense of our union.
Happy Labor Day and bless the Feds.
#Withholdyourdues
