IAFF History

“Show your interest in your own welfare by organizing, attending the meetings of the union and living every day the principles it inculcates.”Samuel Gompers, AFL President

“Firemen are loyal Americans; that is a fact. They have bought Liberty Bonds, War Savings Stamps and contributed to all the war funds until it hurts, shed their blood on the battlefields of Europe, that the world might be saved for democracy. But when they ask for democracy for themselves it is denied them. If they ask for the right to organize, the wrath of the powers that be are immediately brought down upon their devoted heads. If they ask for a living wage, the city authorities throw up their hand and smilingly inform them ‘we have no money.’ If they ask for a shorter working day, they are told, ‘you are not working all the time, even if you are on duty; you are unpatriotic for even thinking of such a thing.”
Thomas Spellacy, IAFF President (1918-1919)

“If you do not organize, and expect to get the cooperation of the citizens in general, you may wake up some fine morning and find that the citizens in general do not respond to your request. You know that the moneyed class will never hand you anything without a hard fight for it; therefore, if the class to which you belong should not cooperate with you in an unorganized body, you should not blame anyone but yourself.”William Smith, IAFF Secretary-Treasurer (1918-1920)