Paid fire fighters began organizing themselves into clubs and associations in the mid-19th century.
Many of these groups were organized for the assistance of fire fighters who were injured on the job or for the
families of fire fighters who died in the line of duty.
By the beginning of the 20th Century, professional fire fighters were beginning to organize themselves into
local unions. The first of these unions to be chartered by the American Federation of Labor was the
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, union which still holds the designation of IAFF LOCAL 1.
By the end of 1916, there were 17 AFL-chartered local fire fighters unions in the United States and one in
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
The World War I surge in unionism was eagerly joined by professional fire fighters. More than 40 local unions
were chartered by the AFL in 1917, and interest grew in establishing an international union. The following year
24 local unions attended a charter conventions held in Baltimore, Maryland.
The Conventions deliberations resulted in the founding of the International Association of Fire Fighters on
Feb. 28, 1918, and its chartering by the AFL. The original IAFF constitution established the union along organizational
lines that are continued to the present day, advised against strikes, and laid out a set of objectives essentially similar to
those cited in the preamble to the present IAFF Constitution.
The convention also founded the IAFF publication, The Fire Fighter, and established and enduring precedent of active
participation in legislative affairs.
Delegates to the 1918 Convention took time off from their deliberations to visit their congressmen to urge them to
enact a "two-platoon system" for the fire fighters of Washington, DC They also formed a legislative committee on
the IAFF Executive Board. Advocacy of the two-platoon system was a primary issue for fire fighters of the day. In 1918,
only 34 American cities maintained two shifts of fire fighters, with one on duty while the other was off. The common
practice was "continuous duty", requiring fire fighters to live constantly in the fire house, except for meals and an occasional
day off.
At the time the IAFF was founded with 5,400 members, the average salary of a top-grade fire fighter was $1,346 a year.
In addition, few fire fighters were protected by civil service laws and almost all pay, promotions, and other benefits came
and went at the whim of local politicians.
Other enduring goals of the IAFF also appeared early in its history. The 1919 convention endorsed the eight-hour work
day, called for universal health insurance, and urged "its speedy enactment with provision for adequate medical and
financial benefits, free choice of physician, active preventive work, and democratic management." That same year,
Boston police went out on strike and public outrage over the strike in the Untied States had a disastrous effect on most public
employee unions, including the IAFF. In the wake of the strike, many public employees were forbidden to belong to unions
and many city governments required IAFF locals to give up their charters in return for pay raises. At the same time in Canada,
public sentiment was in sharp contrasts to that displayed in the Untied States with the Canadian public generally supportive
of the plight of fire fighters and their right to unionize.
The IAFF, which had reported almost 25,000 members in a August 1919, saw a loss of 5,000 members over the
next year. In 1923, the IAFF worked aggressively to encourage the enactment of civil service laws to remove the fire
service from politics. Although membership was down to about 17,000, the IAFF's civil service reform demands were
beginning to show results. The first major victories were in Canada, where provincial laws governing fire services
were enacted to protect fire fighters from politics.
By 1926, membership was beginning to edge upward again and the public support for fire fighter issues was increasing.
At the IAFF's convention that year, members of the Portland, Oregon local proudly reported winning a salary increase
after an unprecedented campaign for public support in which they distributed 100,000 pamphlets, 80,000 letters and
70,000 flyers, advertised in movie theaters, and fulfilled more than 40 speaking engagements.
That same year, the convention turned its attention to professional education for the first time, hearing a speaker from
the U.S. Bureau of Chemistry discuss the hazards of dust explosions and how to fight them. Although the effects of the
Boston police strike lingered and the IAFF in 1930 adopted a "no strike" provision in its Constitution- the membership
and influence of the IAFF continued to grow "Continuous service" was largely a thing of the past. With the IAFF president
and vice presidents serving as organizers, local unions were chartered by the dozens. The effect of the Great Depression,
with its manpower cutbacks and pay-less paydays, further fostered fire fighter unionism.
The IAFF and its affiliates continued fighting for descent wages and working conditions, although prospects for more pay
and shorter hours were hampered by the Great Depression if the 1930s. During the Depression years, when millions of
citizens were unemployed, IAFF members in many cities assisted private relief agencies by organizing "Sunshine Divisions"
for the distribution of clothes and commodities to those in need. The charitable activities of IAFF members during this period
set a precedent that lives on - and to this day, IAFF members still donate their services to assist the public in charitable and
community endeavors.
By 1939, the IAFF could celebrate the spread of civil service laws, significant shortening of hours of work, and growing salaries
for fire fighters. That year also marked the IAFF's first efforts involving occupational safety and health when the IAFF engaged
its first "medical advisor" to carry on research into the physical effects of fire fighting with special attention to heart disease. IAFF
membership, which reached 23,000 in 1932, increased to about 45,000 in 1940 as the IAFF got involved in the new civil defense
activities being inaugurated in the Untied States and Canada.
The 1940s saw major advances in membership and effectiveness, even as the union coped with wartime and postwar problems.
The year 1944 saw the first eight federal locals chartered and the growth of state associations to 33, most of which maintained
legislative representatives to promote issues affecting fire fighters in the state legislatures. Although a World War II wage freeze
largely stymied efforts to counter wartime inflation, the 48-hour week became widespread in the fire service and, in 1948, the IAFF
chartered its 1000th local union.
With the largest cities paying an average of $3,500-a-year to fire fighters, the 1950 IAFF convention set as the union's objectives
a base salary of $5,000,a 40-hour workweek, retirement at half-pay after 20 years of service, $1,200 minimum annual benefits
for widows, and three-quarters pay for fire fighters disabled in the line of duty.
The IAFF entered the 1950s with a membership of more than 72,000 and a rising awareness among fire fighters that pay
increases were not matching the ravages of inflation. In 1955, when the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial
Organizations untied to form the AFL-CIO, the IAFF remained an active affiliate of the newly constituted and larger House of
Labor in the Untied States and its counterpart in Canada, the Canadian Labour Congress.
The IAFF turned its attention to strengthening the bargaining process by advocating the passage of compulsory arbitration laws.
In the 1950s, the IAFF also began a decades-long and largely successful effort to keep fire fighters' pensions from being absorbed
into the social security system. Meanwhile, the IAFF's membership continued to climb, boosted by an upsurge of interest in unionism
among federally-employed fire fighters in the Untied States and Canada. The 1956 convention noted with satisfaction that 85 per
cent of all eligible professional fire fighters belonged to the IAFF. A growing concern of fire fighters in that period was occupational
health and safety and the IAFF began a concerted effort to seek legislation recognizing and providing protection against
occupational hazards. In 1958, the John P. Redmond Memorial Fund for Research of Occupational Diseases of Fire Fighters,
named for a former IAFF president who died during attendance at an AFL-CIO convention, was founded. Its first activities included
establishment of a medical library to assist locals in the presentation of disability and pension cases.
The late 1950s saw many U. S. Locals winning referendum campaigns for higher wages and better working conditions. Canadian locals
by now generally worked under written contracts required by provincial law. The IAFF established a research department to compile
statistics on fire fighter working conditions and other data for use in local bargaining. Meanwhile another threat appeared.
The IAFF had to turn its attention to municipal attempts to merge fire and police departments, with generally disruptive effects on
fire services. It was an issue that would remain a top priority for decades.
The 1960s saw a major expansion of IAFF membership services. In 1960, the International began producing and distributing printed
materials for its affiliates in support of bargaining, negotiating, public relations, and local union administration. Two years later, the IAFF
established a public relations program, followed in 1963 by a program of educational seminars. That same year, the union began mailing
issues of the Fire Fighter directly to all IAFF members. The magazine had previously been distributed by local unions. Also in 1963,
Canadian IAFF members gained important rights when all Canadian provinces began requiring binding arbitration of bargaining disputes.
More and more states began passing binding arbitration laws by the mid-1960s under prodding from IAFF affiliates, and to this day the IAFF
is still working for enactment of a federal law to guarantee collective bargaining rights for all state and municipal fire fighters.
The 50th Anniversary of the IAFF in 1968 came at a time of considerable turmoil in fire service affairs. The convention that year removed
the "no strike" clause from the IAFF Constitution. Convention delegates were reflecting widespread dissatisfaction with employers'
responses to demands for better pay and working conditions, fire fighter casualties resulting from civil disorder in large cities, and
governmental foot-dragging on occupational health hazard problems.
To intensify its efforts on these and other issues, the IAFF that year also established an international legislative representative
position, a vice-president representing fire fighters in the federal sector, and a full-time Canadian representative. A committee,
established to deal with issues of harassment of fire fighters during the performance of their duties, began a campaign for protective
equipment and other measures, but also firmly closed the door on any proposals that fire fighters carry firearms.
The year also saw a major legislative victory for the IAFF. President Lyndon Johnson signed into law the federal Fire Research Act,
which for the first time focused national attention on fire safety problems and led to the establishment of the National Fire Academy. The
IAFF had been a major proponent of the law and its provisions.
In the following years, the IAFF steadily increased its membership services and influence. By the late 1980s, the modern IAFF could
point to impressive and growing list of accomplishments on behalf of the professional fire fighters of the Untied States and Canada.
Among the more recent accomplishments are fostering enactment of a national death benefit for fire fighters killed in the line of duty, an
increasing number of state "right to know" laws in the health and safety area, the establishment of sophisticated, computerized research
and analysis programs to assist affiliates in bargaining and other union activities, protection of pension systems from assault by a host
of attackers, significant public acceptance of professionalism of the fire service, and a growing awareness of the authority with which
professional fire fighters address community fire safety needs.
With the 1990s, and the era of tighter municipal budgets, several new challenges have faced the IAFF and its membership. State and
local governments have attempted to raid the hard-earned pension funds of fire fighters and other public employees in effort to balance
annual budgets. The IAFF and its affiliates have fought back to protect public employee pensions. Increasingly, unit and departmental
staffing have come under attack over the past decade, with many communities fielding engine and ladder companies at levels below
minimum safe staffing requirements. Also in the 1990s, the provision of fire department-based emergency medical services has
emerged as one of the keys to the future of the fire service. With improvements in emergency medicine and technology have come
an increased demand for EMS. Beginning in the 1980s, more and more locals began turn to cross-training of fire fighters, paramedics
and/or emergency medical technicians to take advantage of the growing opportunities presented by EMS.
But the potential profits from providing EMS has drawn the attention of many large corporations which are fighting to privatize many
municipal services. The IAFF has been involved in a city-by-city battle over EMS. At the same time, even as safety improvements
spearheaded by the IAFF made many aspects of the fire fighters' job less dangerous, a variety of new occupational hazards appeared
including that of chemicals, hazardous materials, and infectious diseases. The IAFF moved to the forefront of these areas, developing
an extensive Hazardous Materials training program for fire and emergency personnel and winning a lengthy legislative battle in
Washington to enact an infectious disease notification law for fire fighters.
1901 The AFL charters the first Union of Fire Fighters in Washington D.C.
1903 Pittsburgh fire fighters organize and affiliate themselves with the AFL, becoming Local #1 of the IAFF in 1918.
1917 Firefighters in Vancouver B.C. become the first in Canada to form a firefighters union.
1917 A motion is passed at the AFL convention in Buffalo, N.Y. authorizing the president of the AFL to form an international Union
of Fire Fighters chartered under the AFL.
1918 The average firefighter earns 29 cents an hour and works either a continuous duty system or 84 hours per week.
1918 The first IAFF Convention is held in Washington D.C. on February 28th with 36 firefighter delegates. 5,400 fire fighters
become the first members of the new IAFF.
1921 IAFF membership grows to over 20,000 members.
1938 The first article in a series on heart disease among firefighters is published in The International Fire Fighter.
1939 The IAFF assists locals in Pennsylvania to pass the first Heart and Lung Act, Workers Compensation Act, and the
Occupational Disease Law establishing the first presumptive heart and lung legislation.
1939 U.S. Congress repeals laws prohibiting the Washington D.C. Fire Department from being affiliated with the IAFF.
1943 The average firefighter earns 50 cents an hour and works 70 hours per week.
1948 The IAFF charters its 1,000th local union.
1954 The IAFF adopts muscular dystrophy as it particular charitable endeavor.
1958 The IAFF established the John P. Redmond Foundation for the health and safety of firefighters.
1962 President Kennedys Executive Order 10988 brings new recognition to the IAFFs Federal Fire Fighters.
1963 Canadian IAFF members gain important rights when all Canadian provinces begin requiring binding arbitration of
bargaining disputes.
1966 The IAFF begins the Harvard University Trade Union Program Scholarship and sends its first IAFF member to Harvard
to explore key issues of the labor movement.
1968 The IAFF officially opens its Canadian Office in Ottawa, Ontario to serve as the central clearing-house for member
services and information in Canada.
1968 The average firefighter earns over $2.00 an hour and works 56 hours per week.
1968 President Johnson signs the National Fire Research and Safety Act into law, authorizing for the first time in IAFF
history a fire research and safety program which the federal government will largely frame.
1970 Ground breaking for the new International Headquarters building takes place three blocks from the White House in
Washington D.C.
1970 IAFF President McClennan is made co-chairman of the National Commission on Fire Prevention by President Nixon.
1970 The IAFF charters its 2000th local.
1971 The IAFF conducts its first Redmond Symposium on the health hazards of the fire service.
1976 The IAFF is instrumental in extending coverage of the FLSA to include firefighters after presenting key testimony
to Congress.
1976 At the urging of the IAFF, President Ford signs the Public Safety Officer Benefit Act (PSOB), providing federal money
to the families of four firefighters killed in the line of duty.
1982 The IAFF is instrumental in the developmental work that resulted in the standard on Personal Alert
Safety Systems (PASS).
1984 At the urging of the IAFF, federal firefighters are now covered under PSOB.
1986 The IAFF is instrumental in establishing the first edition of NFPA 1500, Standard of Fire Department Occupational
Safety and Health Programs.
1986 President Reagan signs the Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act establishing first responder and advanced
Hazmat training. The IAFF receives federal funds to begin a training program for firefighters.
1986 The IAFF established the Occupational Medicine Residency Program with Johns Hopkins University.
1987 The IAFF established its Hazmat Training Program with a grant from the federal government.
1988 The IAFF is reorganized to provide expansion of its services through the following departments: Research &
Labor Issues, Governmental Affairs & Political Action, Public Relations & Communications, Education, Occupational
Health & Safety, Hazardous Materials, In-House Legal Counsel, Special Events, and the Canadian Office.
1990 The IAFF conducts its first Regional Seminar as part of a new Educational Seminar Program.
1991 The IAFF holds its first EMS Conference to promote fire-based EMS.
1992 The IAFF is instrumental in getting OSHA to pass 29 CFR1910.1030-Bloodborne Pathogens Regulation.
1992 The average firefighter earns over $13.00 an hour and works 50 hours per week.
1994 After assisting in getting the Ryan White Act passed 1990, the IAFF is instrumental in establishing the Ryan White
infectious disease notification for firefighters implemented by the Centers for Disease Control.
1996 The IAFF continues its push for fire-based EMS integration with the creation of a new EMS Department.
1996 The IAFF launches an internet web site at www.iaff.org.
1996 The IAFF is instrumental in obtaining a permanent exemption for firefighters from the ADEA.
1997 IAFF and IAFC join together for the Joint Labor Management Wellness/Fitness Initiative.
1997 IAFF and NIOSH develop Line- of-Duty Death Investigation Programs. President Clinton includes $2.5
million to begin the federal investigation program for firefighters.
1998 The IAFF is instrumental in getting OSHA to update 29 CFR1910.134-Respiratory Protection
Regulation, including 2 in/2 out provisions for firefighting in an immediately dangerous to life and health atmosphere.
