IAFF: J Says “Withhold Dues”
Boycott Dues Payment Until Report Released
J, a faithful reader, writes often and had this to say about the vice president’s Schnader report hostage-taking:
I will disagree with you all day long about the Covid vaccines, but on this issue of IAFF corruption you and me are completely on the same page. This garbage has to stop. I have had multiple talks with my union president … about this issue and have yet to get a sufficient answer as to why we still pay $50,000 a month to this corrupt organization. Have you thought about sending an open letter to all the union presidents of the major cities and seeing what kind of response you get? Just a thought. If we could get the top five or 10 unions to cut funding I bet things would change in a heartbeat.
He’s exactly right, of course.
But I would add that it should be ALL locals, of every size, holding their dues until justice prevails.
Here’s why:
The fat-cat vice-presidents are pushing the issue to the next convention, effectively dumping it into the lap of the members to make them decide.
Why wait, vote now and use dues payment as the vehicle.
It’s a powerful way to express your local’s view.
Withhold dues and send the message “release the report we paid for.”
Or you can continue to pay your dues and retain “chump” status as the great con goes on.
The minute the money spigot starts to slow and the vice presidents understand they might miss a paycheck suddenly we will have their full attention.
Rank and file members will have turned the table.
Take the issue to your next general membership meeting. If you’re a regular member and not an officer in your local, make a motion “to withhold dues payment to the International until the unredacted Schnader report is made available to all IAFF members.”
I’ve participated in enough of those to know that the discussion would be short, sharp and pointed and the result obvious: hold the cash until the report is released.
It’s a strong message in support of an ethical IAFF from the bottom up.
When your district vice president starts to whine that withholding dues is a bad idea and will cripple the IAFF, tell him you’re just voting as they want though you are choosing the method. Call it “early voting.”
(And they are the ones who are crippling the IAFF.)
In fact, the six vice presidents currently voting for release of the report should be lobbying for their districts to withhold dues as a way of applying pressure to the others. To not do so shows how weak and ineffective they really are.
Withholding dues is nothing more than a job action to force a corrupt management to “fess up.”
It’s just a shame it happens to be our union.
Vice presidents voting to release the report:
Slevin (1) Colbert (2) Pantelis (4) Carter (6) Walsh (7) Frainier (9)
Vice presidents voting not to release the report:
Woolbright (2) Thornberg (5) Sanders (8) Gilman (10) McGhee (11) Dix (12) LeBlanc (13) Todd (14) Burry (15) Johnson (16)
