Professional Fire Fighters of Idaho ~ Unionism
THE PAST IS PROLOGUE
-December 7, 1736: Benjamin Franklin's Union Fire Company becomes the
first formally recognized group to make a specialty of fire suppression and
rescue "for preserving our own and our fellow citizens' houses, goods and
effects in case of fire."
-1806: Philadelphia shoemakers convicted of "attempting to increase the
wages paid them and for deceitfully forming themselves into a club to attain
their ends."
-1834: First attempt at forming a national federation of labor groups.
-1842: In a landmark decision the Massachusetts Supreme Court establishes
the legality of unions by declaring that "they are not illegal conspiracies."
-1886: Founding of the American Federation of Labor (AFL) pledged to work for
better wages, working conditions, and working hours. Twenty-five unions with
140,000 members, primarily skilled craft workers. Samuel Gompers is first
president.
- Apr.-July 1892: Miners strike at Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. After strikers dynamite a
concentrating mill at the Frisco mine July 11, the National Guard and federal
troops are called out and martial law established on July 13. During the next five
days, 600 miners and sympathizers are arrested. Thirteen are convicted of
contempt of court and four of conspiracy. In December, the AFL convention votes
$500 for the miners' defense and calls for a congressional investigation. Although
the mines reopen with nonunion labor and the strike is lost, the U.S. Supreme
Court reverses the conspiracy convictions in Mar. 1893, the remaining
indictments are lifted, and those still in custody are released.
- Apr. 23 1899: Miners in Coeur D'Alene, Idaho, strike. On April 29, strikers
commandeer a train, attack the Bunker Hill and Sullivan mine in Wardner, and
destroy machinery. Federal troops are sent on April 30 and martial law is
declared on May 3. Some 700 men are arrested, and troops remain in the district
until Apr. 1901.
-1890: Sherman Anti-Trust Act declares contracts, agreements, and
conspiracies that restrain trade among states or with foreign nations to be
illegal. Employers use it as an anti-strike weapon.
-1901: AFL charters the first Union of Fire Fighters in Washington, D.C. Fire
fighter appointments often based on political patronage.
Power Through Participation
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Member Orientation
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-1903: Pittsburgh, PA, fire fighters organize and affiliate themselves with the
AFL, later becoming Local #1 in 1918. The President of Local #1 was fired, and
the members of the local paid his salary and the fees to fight for reinstatement,
which happened two years later. Average annual salary $1,259. All leave
typically was subject to the Fire Chief’s approval.
-July, 1903: Mother Jones leads child workers in demanding 55-hour
workweek.
-1905: Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) founded. The IWW, a.k.a. “the
Wobblies,” advocates one big union, undivided by craft, gender, or race and
dedicated to class struggle. With its free speech rights campaign (1908-11), it
began the process of making civil liberties a major public concern in 20th
Century America.
-April 17, 1905: Supreme Court rules New York's law setting 60-hour
workweek unconstitutional.
- Feb. 1906: Western Federation of Miners (WFM) leaders Charles Moyer, Bill
Haywood, and George Pettibone are kidnapped by Colorado and Idaho
authorities and extradited to Idaho where they are jailed on charges of
conspiracy in the murder of former Idaho governor Frank Steunenberg. After
Haywood and Pettibone are tried and acquitted, charges against Moyer are
dropped.
-1907: Omaha, Nebraska, wins first two-platoon system.
-1909: Fire fighters’ disability, pension systems and death benefit established in
Washington State.
-1910: Nine million women wage-earners; three fourths earn less than $8.00
per week.
-March 25, 1911: Triangle Shirtwaist sweatshop fire kills 146; exit doors were
determined to be locked.
-1912: "Bread and Roses Strike" of textile workers in Lawrence, MA.
-March 14, 1913: Congress creates the U.S. Department of Labor (Public Law
426-62).
-1914: Congress passes the Clayton Act, declaring that union picketing is
lawful and that the labor of a human being is not a "commodity."
-April 20, 1914: Ludlow massacre of striking coal miners, wives, children in
Colorado.
-January 25, 1915: Supreme Court upholds "yellow dog" contracts, which
forbid membership in labor unions.
-1916: Eighteen AFL-chartered firefighter locals. Vancouver, B.C., becomes
first Canadian IAFF affiliate.
Power Through Participation
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Member Orientation
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-1916: By 1917, sixty-six local labor unions had been chartered by the AFL. At
the AFL convention in Buffalo, NY, Thomas G. Spellacy of Schenectady, NY,
noted a substantial number of fire fighters who had become union members.
His resolution, adopted by the convention, pointed out that some other unions
were claiming jurisdiction over the fire fighters’ membership. Spellacy proposed
that fire fighters be given their own union with "complete jurisdiction of all men
actually engaged in fire fighting."
-September 3, 1916: Railroad workers win eight-hour day.
-September 7, 1916: Federal employees win Workmen's Compensation Act.
-November, 1917: Resolution passed authorizing AFL President Samuel
Gompers to establish an international union of fire fighters.
-1918: The average fire fighter earns 29 cents an hour and works a continuous
duty, single platoon system or 84 hours per week. Average national wage for a
top-grade firefighter is $1,346 per year.
-February 28, 1918: The first IAFF convention is held in Washington, D.C., with
36 fire fighter delegates representing 24 local unions. 5,400 fire fighters
become the first members of the new IAFF. Thomas Spellacy is formally
elected first president. Most members attending were ultimately dismissed from
their positions by employers in retribution. Spellacy served only a few months.
He was succeeded by Samuel A. Fink of Pittsburgh Local #1, who served until
the next convention in September, 1919.
-1919: The second IAFF convention was held in Portland, Oregon. The eighthour day was endorsed and immediate implementation of universal health care
was promoted. The IAFF has 10,000 members. Fred Baer, of Kansas City, MO,
is elected as IAFF President and serves in that capacity until his death in 1946.
-1919: Boston police strike. Boston Fire Fighters, Local #19, broken. U.S.
Congress prohibits Washington, D.C., fire fighters from affiliating with the IAFF.
-1919: Average fire fighter workweek is 84 hours, and the average wage is 29
cents per hour.
-November 11, 1919: Legionnaires attack IWW members in Centralia,
Washington.
-March 1920: IWW members sentenced in Centralia massacre.
-November 2, 1920: Eugene Debs receives 900,000 votes for his Presidential
candidacy while in prison.
-1921: IAFF membership grows to over 20,000 members.
-1927: Average annual industrial wage rises to $1,000 per year.
Power Through Participation
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Member Orientation
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-1930: IAFF adopts a "no strike" provision in its Constitution.
-May 4, 1931: Striking miners fight gun thugs in Harlan County, Kentucky.
-March 7, 1932: Strikers killed by police at Ford's Dearborn, Michigan, plant.
-1932: Norris-LaGuardia Anti-Injunction Act bans "yellow dog contracts,"
requiring employees to sign pledges not to join unions.
-1932: Average annual worker wage: $8,842.92
-July 16, 1934: General strike in San Francisco, CA, begins.
-1934: Southern Tenant Farmers Union founded.
-1935: Congress passes the National Labor Relations Act, a.k.a. Wagner Act,
providing the foundation for current U.S. labor law and paving the way for union
growth nationwide. The law granted unions the right to organize and obligated
employers to bargain collectively with unions on hours, wages, and other terms
and conditions of employment. The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB)
was also developed under the Act, creating a means and mechanism for
enforcement.
-1935: Congress passes the Social Security Act which provided for
unemployment insurance, aid to dependent children, rehabilitation for the
physically disabled, improved public health and a national retirement plan.
-1936: John L. Lewis leads the formation of the Committee for Industrial
Organizations (CIO) within the AFL. The CIO plans to organize unskilled
workers and other workers not accepted by the AFL. The CIO is later expelled
from the AFL and becomes a separate labor federation renamed the Congress
of Industrial Organizations.
-February 11, 1937: General Motors recognizes UAW after Flint, MI, sit-down
strike.
-May 26, 1937: Company police beat up UAW leaders at the Ford Rouge plant
in Michigan.
-May 31, 1937: Ten strikers killed by police at Republic Steel.
-1938: Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) was the first minimum wage law for
non-agricultural labor; set a minimum wage of 25 cents an hour; established the
8-hour a day, 40-hour per week workweek; overtime payment for work beyond
40 hours; and banned child labor in all businesses engaged in interstate
commerce. Public employees were exempted from the provisions of the Act.
-1939: The IAFF assists Pennsylvania locals in passing the first Heart and Lung
Act, Workers Compensation Act, and the Occupational Disease Law
establishing the first presumptive heart and lung legislation.
Power Through Participation
www.pffi.org
Member Orientation
www.iaff7thdistrict.org
-December, 1940: 25.3% of labor force is female.
-June 25, 1941: President Roosevelt signs executive order barring race
discrimination in defense industries and government.
-1943: The average firefighter earns 50 cents an hour, $1,908 annually and
works 70 hours per week.
-January 1, 1947: Citizen ballot won 48-hour week, 3-platoon system
implemented in Seattle. The basic salary was $245.00/month in Seattle,
$250.00/month in Everett and $290.00/month in San Francisco
-1947: Taft Hartley Act significantly amends the National Labor Relations Act,
emphasizes employer rights, the rights of employees to refuse to join unions
and restricts many union practices. State "right-to-work" laws appear with
prohibition of the "union shop."
-1948: The IAFF charters its 1,000th local union.
-May 25, 1948: General Motors-UAW contract is signed with an automatic
cost-of-living increase provision.
-September 7, 1950: International Ladies Auxiliary officially organized.
-1952: Everett becomes one of two American cities to have compulsory
arbitration; the other city is Detroit.
-1955: American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations
merge, creating the AFL-CIO.
-December 6, 1957: Teamsters expelled from AFL-CIO.
- November 1958: First attempt to pass a “Right to Work” Initiative in Idaho
fails.
-1961: "Fireman's Pension Fund" established.
-1964: Civil Rights Act/Title VII prohibited discrimination by unions, employers,
and employment agencies on the basis of race, national origin, color, religion or
gender. It also empowered the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to
take legal action against those who discriminated in such a manner.
-1967: RCW 41.56, providing collective bargaining for public employees in
Washington State, is enacted. This was the first statewide collective bargaining
act in the U.S.
-1968: The average fire fighter earns over $2.00 per hour and works 56 hours
per week. 130,000 IAFF members. Average annual salary = $6,485 with a 56
hour work week.
-1968: Delegates at the IAFF Convention unanimously reverse the
Constitution's “no strike” clause.
Power Through Participation
www.pffi.org
Member Orientation
www.iaff7thdistrict.org
-1970: Congress passes the Occupational Safety and Health Act, requiring
employers to provide a workplace “free from recognized hazards that are
causing or are likely to case death or serious physical harm to employees.” The
law also established and gave enforcement powers to the Occupational Safety
and Health Administration (OSHA) to develop and enforce safe workplace
rules.
-1976: At the urging of the IAFF, President Ford signs the Public Safety Officer
Benefit Act, providing federal money to the families of four fire fighters killed in
the line-of-duty.
-1985: Garcia v. San Antonio Transit. Supreme Court decides to include state
and municipal employees under the FLSA.
- November 1986: “Right to Work” Initiative passes and is signed into law in
Idaho crippling the labor movement in a sate rich in union history.
-1987: Presumptive disability for lung diseases enacted.
-September 3, 1991: Hamlet, NC, fire kills 25 in chicken processing plant (exits
locked).
-1992: Average annual fire fighter salary is $34,400, with a 50-hour work week.
2,200 IAFF locals serving more than 195,000 members. .
-1995: John Sweeney takes leadership of AFL-CIO in the first contested
election in the Federation's history.
-1997: UPS strike symbolizes renewed energy of labor movement.
-1998: In November elections, the Voter News Service reports that 23% of all
voters were members of union households.
2000: Harold Schaitberger takes leadership of the IAFF in the first noncontested election for General President in the IAFF’s history.
September 11, 2001: 343 FDNY members perish when responding to a
terrorist attack on the World Trade Center.
2002: Coverage of presumptive occupational diseases is expanded, adding
heart, cancer and infectious disease to RCW 51.32.185.
-Present: Currently there are approximately 2,500 IAFF locals representing over
288,000 IAFF members. IAFF members protect more than 85% of the lives and
property, and are the largest providers of pre-hospital and emergency medical
care in the U.S. and Canada.
Power Through Participation
www.pffi.org
Member Orientation
www.iaff7thdistrict.org