MainLine - San Francisco Firefighters Local 798

The David Scannell ClubDuring my time in the hospital,following my back injury, the businessof the David Scannell Club, of which Iwas president, had to go on. It was notunusual, either day or night, for a groupof my officers and directors to be engagedin knock-down, drag-out discussionsregarding some issue needing tobe resolved. I had been the instigator ingetting the firemen to affiliate with theAFL-CIO and due to Frank Blackburn andI, we became Local 789 International Associationof Firefighters. My most politicallyactive years while in the SFFD werefrom 1938 until my retirement in 1949. In1938 the department went on the ballotwith so many charter amendments thatthe people became confused and voteddown the complete packet. San Franciscovoters have always claimed it was betterto vote NO on something they couldn’tunderstand than to vote YES and then bestuck with a lot more taxes. They reallygave a NO vote in 1938.I was in the department lessthan a year when I decidedto get this ridiculous situationstraightened out.The 1930 Charter Revision Committeepresented a new charter which passedeasily. We were in the midst of the Depressionand people were panickedinto the drastic amendment which cutout most of the benefits that had beengained during the last thirty years. Thisamendment also split the fire and policedepartments into opposing camps anddestroyed the unity of purpose whichhad existed for years. The new charterretained all the benefits with few exceptionsto all newly hired men. We now hadSubmitted by John F McCloskeytwo types of firemen: Old Charter andNew Charter. I was in the San FranciscoFire Department for more than sixteenyears, yet I was still classified as a “new”man.I was in the department less than a yearwhen I decided to get this ridiculous situationstraightened out. It was easier saidthan done. I had joined the David ScannellClub, but did not attend meetings. Ifigured only a handful of new men actuallyjoined. I was ninety-third on the list andthe last one appointed, and we were inno position to bargain. Since doing nothingwas never one of my failings, I madeit a point to visit every firehouse in SanFrancisco and just feel out the attitudeof the firemen. I would stop in at a firehouseand start a discussion on most anysubject. It did not take long for me to realizethat many of the older men thoughtthat the new men had gotten “the shaft”and that the system was totally unfair.The only reason they had accepted thenew plan was to take advantage of thelongevity clause which allowed them toremain in the department after age sixtyfive.The charter had called for compulsoryretirement at age sixty-five. It alsogave them an automatic salary increaseafter retirement if one was available toactive men. A “new man” had to put in33 years of service and would receive afifty percent allowance which was frozenonce set by the retirement board. A retiredfireman would receive no raises inpay if the active men got a raise. A fireman’swidow received half of the allowancedivided between her and her minorchildren if her husband was killed in theline of duty. This was an upgrade to someextent since I retired but was not retroactiveto past widows.The Retirement System was empoweredto reduce my allowance if I earned over$110 per month on a secondary job. Veryfew people realize that the RetirementSystem is a two-way street. The city payson half of the costs and the firemen paythe other half by cash deductions fromeach paycheck. The city put in an IOUand had done so for over forty years. Inever paid less than ten dollars monthlyand it went as high as sixty dollars beforeI left.Blackburn, Callahan and I andthe other members of our committeeimmediately walked out of thechambers of the Board ofSupervisors and got on th ephoseand called every supevisor andpolitician we could get in touchwith and told them what washappening.When the men in the Department finallygot control of the David Scannell Club,which took about five years, conditionsstarted to improve for the better. In orderto gain control of the club, we persuadedone of the mot popular men under theold system to run for president. He believedin the necessity of change and didsomething about it. Battalion Chief TomWebb defeated Captain Fred Ireland andhis group of yes-men. And in a matter ofmonths, we received resignations fromthe old guard or we soundly beat themat the next election. I was elected tothe board of directors and by 1948 I waselected president. In the meantime, BobCallahan, who become very active duringthe election, and was subsequentlyelected secretary. He was re-elected tothat position and then became ExecutiveSecretary, a job which he held untilwww.sffdlocal798.org Main Line 13