Catherwood LibraryILR School

The conflict over a resolution prohibiting members of the International Association of Fire Fighters from serving in volunteer companies---passed unanimously last summer by the international executive board---is heating up in the Washington DC area. President of local 1619 Tom McEachin began a push for greater enforcement of the resolution last month by mailing letters to career firefighters in DC, Virginia and Maryland, who have been volunteering at stations staffed partly by volunteers and partly by paid firefighters, informing them that they are violating union rules. Passed in order to increase reliance on paid full-time firefighters, the resolution will, if enforced, affect the approximately seventy percent of career firefighter nationwide who also volunteer, and may result in litigation on the grounds that it discriminates based on union membership.