Local 2068 vs. the VPFF
Are we Political Montblancs or Crayons?
Are we Political Montblancs or Crayons?
We need to put an end to the ridiculous notion that our local should in anyway entertain the idea of disassociating with Virginia Professional Firefighters (VPFF). I wrote this in response to some questions that were asked of me in prior postings about the relationship between Local 2068 and the VPFF, as well as the fact that a retiree came to our last executive board meeting and ask for us to withdrawal from the VPFF. This issue is profoundly important to our local so please try to have patience as you read. Print it off and read it in stages if necessary. You want information; you want to understand the issues, well it takes endurance. I care about this local and its future tremendously. My battalion representative duties are the most important thing to me in my fire department career. It may be winded but it gives you the full 411 on the debate. I highly suspect that some are encouraging this hysteria because they have their own personal ambitions to pursue elected positions within the VPFF. I am not talking about President Niemiec. Nearly every issue in our local is like an iceberg. Some would have you believe that only that which you can see above the surface is all that exist; when in truth there is massiveness just below. I can not allow the membership to believe for one more second that it is acceptable to not be affiliated with the state association. As a responsible battalion representative I must state this publicly. As one of your elected representatives let me be the first to try and explain to you why this is unacceptable.
I believe egos and personnel feelings, on both sides, is an enormous part of what is driving the wrangling between the VPFF and our Local; coupled with a general lack of understanding of what reasonable expectations are between an affiliate and a state association. I outlined all of this to our executive board in an email back in April. The information exchange between the VPFF and our local was called into question by Vice President Willie Bailey. I offered my opinion and solutions. If I’m not mistaken our leadership opted to do nothing in terms of official correspondence between our local and the VPFF. At the suggestion of Director Flannigan there was one meeting that took place between the two that was mediated by IAFF District Vice President Bill Taylor. Secretary Gray stated it was a good starting point but more work was needed. I have yet to see a copy of any official correspondence between our local and the VPFF asking for an increase in the information flow to our local. Yet members of your executive board continue to walk around and claim that the VPFF doesn’t share information, they demand lists of services based on a per capita dues totals at general membership meetings and executive board meetings, and they stoke fires suggesting we pull out. I challenge anyone who wishes to stand on a pulpit calling for this absurd action to identify one authoritative brick that your podium is built on. I have been to the VPFF legislative conference multiple times, I have attending VPFF educational conferences multiple times, and I have traveled around this state and witnessed the value that our state association brings. I have seen those who have benefited from the fights involving cancer presumption, the fights to ensure infectious disease presumption, the fights to restore funding to the Virginia Department of Fire Programs, I have testified for legislation at the general assembly. I have traveled around this country and seen the benefit of a positive synergy between state associations and affiliates. This is the basis for my opinion what is yours? This crippling rhetoric continues even after the initial meeting that was meant to heal the rift. Director Simcoe is sending stuff forward as quickly as he receives it on a regular basis. Director Lopez (your appointee to the VPFF board) updates us regularly on executive board discussions. Which is it are we not being served by the VPFF, or are we serving ourselves by putting self destructive untrue information on the street? Are we trying to repair and strengthen, or destroy? If it is broken we must fix it. If we are seeking fiscal accountability then we must lay out our expectations. We must outline what services we think we are entitled to that we are not receiving. We need to strive to find something in our political lexicon besides sever.
We are what I believe is one of the top 25 largest locals in this nation, we have a one million dollar budget, and a one hundred thousand dollar PAC fund, yet in nearly two years we have failed to capitalize on what should be the simplest of political relationships. President Niemiec and President Mohler if you can’t work the relationships in your our own back yards what other political relationships are you failing to capitalize on that you are unwilling to admit to? Remember when we point our fingers three more are pointing back at us. Which is it Local 2068 and VPFF are we political Montblancs or crayons? This local deserves an executive board that has an instinctual ability to comprehend the concept of relationship building on a level much deeper then a debate cliché. They deserve a state president and local president who can let go of the anger, get the big picture and stop sacrificing the membership’s needs to placate their own. They deserve leaders who understand it is self destructive to undermine a relationship like that which has existed between the VPFF and Local 2068 for a very long time. This goes back to former Local 2068 President Eric Lamar and the General President of the IAFF himself. I know I have been a member of this local since February 29, 1988. If we allow this relationship to fail, then we can add it to a list entitled, “Things we have allowed to erode that others before us worked tirelessly to build”. This goes for Local 2068 and the VPFF.
We must hold our leaders accountable when efforts are being made to focus crosshairs, not to take out those who would harm this local, but instead on those who we feel are undermining an empire. Crosshairs need to rest on those who control committees that kill our bills before we can get a vote, on those who pass rules that make it all but impossible to track voting records, and on those who would accept our boots on the street pounding their signs and not bother to vote for our legislation. No one in this local should act as if they just met President Mohler. I can assure you he has in no way cornered the market on certain character traits. Newsflash lots of fire department administrators, labor leaders and politicians are less then Mother Theresa in terms of their temperament. I watched a United States Congressman yell, and call President Niemiec terrible names, and nearly assault him in his chest with his CAFTA voting finger in front of a huge crowd during the Senator Webb campaign. I’m certain we would be willing to break bread and correspond with this congressman for the good of the order. Why is this different?
I would rather deal with a politician 24/7 that when their mad; I know it, when they have no intention of voting for my stuff; I know it, and when they disagree with me I know it. The bad boy behavior that President Mohler is best known for displaying is nearly always directed at those who deserve it. The most recent example was towards a politician who promised to support our line of duty death bill and then reneged. I for one feel better knowing there is someone out there who is going to blast each and every one of them, each and every time they do this. You can’t break a promise to help take care of the families of members who have paid the ultimate sacrifice and then walk away without getting your butt chewed out. That’s the least you deserve I see no reason not to bring back tar and feathering as an option when it comes to politicians who lie about their support for line of duty death and disability benefits. This is personal for all of us who have lobbied for this legislation; because, we see the faces of all Fairfax County firefighters (162 of them) and their families who will be served when funding for this legislation is finally passed.
This was the reason President Mohler came to the general membership meeting. He was mad because the local was exercising autonomy with its endorsements. He felt the local was endorsing candidates that had failed to support the VPFF legislative package. The tantrum that President Mohler threw was nothing compared to what I have seen and heard about other union leaders doing. Although general presidents of labor organizations based on experience, are arguably much more sophisticated in terms of their temperaments and politically savvy then affiliate leaders they rarely have difficulty expressing their displeasure with choices involving autonomy. Can you imagine if the Chicago Journeymen Plumbers’ Local Union 130 with over 5,600 members, which is one of the largest straight-line plumbing locals in the United Association (UA) International Union, had endorsed John McCain over President Obama? I’m thinking a pleasant phone call to casually discuss the possible conflict isn’t exactly what would have taken place. It is the same thing only it’s relative to our little state of Virginia. President Niemiec new and understood his decision when he made it. He is a big boy and handled it well. That’s what effective presidents do argue their positions to the membership and the executive board. Nothing went wrong. It went right; John successfully defended the position of the executive board. I want positions to be argued, the alternative is rubber stamping. No thanks. This didn’t happen before because the president of local 2068 was the president of the VPFF. Mike wasn’t trying to make the executive board look bad any more then Scott Kraut and Big Dog were when they came to a GM meeting and argued and won against the 2010 LOB document. It was a debate about the will of the membership.
If there is evidence to show: that we are not on the distribution list for the VPFF, that our seat has been removed from its executive board, that we don’t currently sit on its legislative committee, that the President, Vice President, or Secretary do not take or return phone calls, that the District Vice President has alienated our local, or that we were not a part of convention, then please produce it. In fact, produce any evidence of collusion to bog down information flow. Please do not start with the Stimulus Money or Terry McAuliffe we have addressed that on the Big Eye already. We have cut ties with the VPFF at the very top of our organization. President Niemiec doesn’t even attend the executive board meetings. If you want to have information coming to our local above and beyond that which other affiliates get then you should contemplate this for a second. You can’t break up with your girlfriend and then complain because she doesn’t call, or send you flowers on our birthday.
President Mohler you need Local 2068, the largest affiliate in the state, to accomplish what it is you want. Start acting like it. President Niemiec if you continue to allow Colin Flannigan and Will Bailey to start these spot fires on your watch then have fun explaining to the General President and Eric Lamar how it was that you let their hard work, and portions of their legacy get flushed down the political toilet. This is not a conversation I would want to have, but this is what will happen in the process of trying to take President Mohler and his team out. The divisiveness within our local is going to spread across the state because when the members of Local 2068 throw their weight around to control the state association elections then standby for the backlash. Stand by for the claims of arrogance and abuse. Our strength as the largest local in the state should be used with extreme caution. We have a responsibility to temper our voting power against the needs of every one of the other 55 affiliates. Let’s not forget that along with being the largest we are the richest. As I have told you before we are eating lobster with butter sauce when others are dining on canned tuna.
Thoughts on the feud: I personally believe if we don’t demonstrate the necessary courage to put this issue to bed for good we must all own as part of our legacy the wanton and willful dilution of our strength as a labor organization; furthermore, we should all be forced to where a scarlet “S” for selfish. This goes for the leadership of the VPFF as well. I have time I can sew a bunch of them. I say this because the anger is carrying over into our endorsement process and this is fatal. All locals have the right to exercise autonomy against the state association, or the IAFF for that matter but remember when we don black and gold in both camps of a campaign we neutralize our collective voice. We damage our ability to carry legislation at a state level. Politics is our life line and trust me any politician whose motives are unscrupulous will not only understand this neutralization process but also do what they can to encourage it. When they see a crack they drive a wedge in it to make it bigger. The fight is “us against them” not “us against us”. Unity is more then a cool catch phrase for letterhead. It is the foundation that holds our tower of strength. For those of you on this blog and the executive board calling for the ousting of the immediate past president of our local and are suggesting we replace him with someone who would most likely come from another local read this thing twice, three times if you have to, because there would be no greater example of politically cutting off your nose to spite your face. Be careful not to just feed on rhetoric. Ask them for specific examples and documentation.
The cornerstone of strength for all labor organizations is their political ties. The current executive board is currently the proud owner of two examples of failed relationships: the president of the VPFF, and the fire chief. These two are members of our local. If we are truly serving a greater cause then you should not be able to shine a light between us and either of them; instead, I could drive service one between us and both of them. That is not a testament to my driving skills because I have none, but instead an affirmation of the sheer enormity of the divisiveness that has been allowed to both continue and develop on our watch. On behalf of the first battalion I demand we fix it, and fix it now.
See this it’s a line in the sand. For those of you on the executive board that think it’s a good idea to withdrawal from the VPFF (it’s not all of us) make a motion. If you don’t want to make a motion then stop trying to pump up the membership to create a false crisis so you can be a hero, or run for a position with the VPFF. The damage you are doing in the process has far reaching consequences.
I feel as if I’m tattling, and in some ways I am, but if that it what it takes to stop those who would “burn the village in order to save it” then so be it. Judge those involved in this however you see fit but please ask yourself though how would you feel if you had given everything, made immeasurable personal sacrifices for the good of the order only to have your board of successors cut your throat on the grandest scale imaginable; this is what happened to Mike. Ask yourself how you would feel if you had waited a very long time to take your place at the helm, supported your president faithfully only to have none of the support and accolades that you have justly earned and feel you are entitled to; this is what happened to John. This is the heart of the problem. I understand the problem from both sides. John has worked hard, he is our president, and we must support him. Mike has given 25 years to this local, he is our president and we must support him. What started this is irrelevant; the truth is so far behind us it doesn’t even matter. I know this much, the old adage that the two of you are more alike then either of you are comfortable admitting is 100% true. At the risk of sounding like a know-it-all I offer this, Mike you would have hammered someone who has done, or not done some of the things that have been done to John over the last two years. John karma is a “Bitch” and if you think the coffin that you and others are building for Mike can’t happen to you then wake up and smell the proverbial coffee. Energy must be spent right now on our budget process and political action not on continuing the feud. While the two of you are in the green room slapping each other, pulling hair, and putting sugar in each others tanks. The powers to be are on stage killing us. Perhaps it’s time for the Human Relations Committee of the IAFF to intervene. If we are expected to utilize our HRC at an affiliate level to work out issues then perhaps the IAFF HRC could mediate this one. The two of them need to sit down and lay it all out with mediation. Then have a private conversation President to President and admit out loud to each other what you have done and why and then promise to stop. You both know what I am talking about. Words first then actions, here is an example
John says: “Mike stop showing up at my general membership meetings acting like a jerk. If you have concerns call me.”
Mike says: “John attend my executive board meetings when you send Lopez it’s insulting and demonstrates that you don’t care about the VPFF.”
Then if Mike shows up and acts like a jerk, or if John fails to attend a VPFF executive board meeting then you know what they are here for. It’s not the membership. Both of you all the time say you are here for the membership; well its time to put up or shut up.
Lastly, I say this. In the past week I watched an internet video of the General President speaking about the actions of our brothers in Massachusetts and their efforts to secure a portion of the stimulus money to restore the jobs of 127 firefighter’s who had been laid off. The synergy between their state association and affiliates produced 1700 pairs of firefighter boots on the street to get what they needed for those firefighters and their families. Both of you should ask yourself where are you right now. Mike could you get 1700 people to show up? I doubt it. John could you? I doubt it. You barely had a quorum at your swearing in. Like it or not you need each other. Please, bury the hatchet and restore your friendship. I want a local that busts open the doors to celebrate the election of new principle officers. I most certainly want a state association that can rally to protect 127 firefighter jobs. If not for yourselves and your legacies then for every hard working member who needs good leadership to help us survive these desperate financial times. The General President of the IAFF warned of administrators and municipal governments utilizing the financial crisis as an opportunity to turn back the hands on the clock of our safety, our pay, and every aspect of our working conditions. Hello we are swimming in the middle of this lake of administrative opportunistic craziness. We are balancing the budget by allow the fire department to create vacancies and then eliminating the positions. This is known as opportunistic downsizing. We are for the first time in my 23 year career allowing the FRD to present budget proposals without the imput of Local 2068. PLEASE ON BEHALF OF EVERY DUES PAYING MEMBER ACROSS THE STATE AND LOCAL 2068 STOP THE INSANITY!
This I hope puts you both in a place of equal guilt and vindication. I hoped to build a platform that both of you can step on to raise your hands together and pledge that whatever personal feelings you have towards one another pales in comparison to the needs of our members. I would ask that the first move come from President Mohler. You must congratulate President Niemiec for his victory and honestly and with sincerity avail yourself to moving this thing forward. President Niemiec has already begun the healing process within his own executive board and I am certain given what I know are his true motivations will be willing to extend this to our state association as well.
Please excuse my grammatical errors I wrote this with no editing team and career development only goes so far!
Thank you
Leigh Boswell
1st Battalion Representative
IAFF Local 2068
