MainLine - San Francisco Firefighters Local 798

as a result of death or permanent injuryreceived in the line of duty. If the wifeof a deceased fireman remarried, she notonly lost her retirement pay, so did herchildren.This reminds me of an event that happenedwhile I was in office. One of theassistant drill-masters, who had servedtwenty-four and a half years in active service,died at home the day after his tourof duty. He had severe heart attack anddid not survive. Under normal conditions,had he lived another six months,his widow would have gotten the fiftypercent allowance, but since he died inbed, she was cut off completely. Ourretirement committee investigated herclaim and found that her husband hadbeen in one of the most active companiesduring his time in the department.His duties, including training raw recruitsin the drill tower, were extremely hazardous.He also had to train the regularsin the operation of new equipment. Hedemonstrated the actual results of certaininflammables by building real firesin the basement of the tower and wouldthen lead men into it. The basement wasI must say that many of theactions I took while in the DavidScannell Club were not wellreceived by the membership.a mystic maze. The fire was contained toa wheel-barrow which had been fueledand refueled for an hour or more beforegoing in there. The smoke was horrible.In those days the only men equippedwith self-contained oxygen helmets werethe men on the Rescue Squad. Therewere no helmets, as such, for the tower.A wet handkerchief was the usual protection.If you had a couple of bucks youcould buy a nose-piece which would getyou into the area but seldom lasted morethan three minutes. These black felt coveringswere more hazardous than the fireitself. Everytime we had a fire drill wewere ordered into this very hot basementto find and extinguish the wheelbarrowfire and to find and rescue a doll whichwas presumably trapped therein. All thishad to be done within three minutes orthey would have to come in and rescueus. Many times they had to do just that.When the trap door to the basement wasopened, we had to make our exit via thisopening which was ten feet above us.The opening of the doors gave us sufficientair and some coolness to be ableto navigate this last hazard. It was toughenough for a young man but it was pitifulto watch some of the old-timers tryingto scale the walls. This is the reason thatour friend lost his life. After such a drillhe went home and died.The retirement board denied the widow’sapplication because they didn’t want toset a precedent. She was left with sevenchildren, all of school age or younger.This all happened before 1945 and wewere not in the AFL-CIO-CIO. If it wasn’tfor our own associations, she would havebeen left destitute and wouldn’t havebeen able to decently bury her husband.This case sparked our members to demanda change in the whole system.We went to Sacramento to try and get aspecial tax to pay widows and to firemeninjured in the line of duty. This tax wasto be levied against fire insurance companies.The idea met with tremendousopposition from the insurance industry,when in fact, it wouldn’t have cost thema penny. If we had succeeded, all theywould have had to do was increase theirfire insurance rates by one half of onepercent and it would have returned morethan enough premiums to carry this slightburden.It took a big part in this cause and eventuallythe State of California will enactsuitable legislation making the HeartPneumonia Bill justification for industrialcompensation, not only for firemen, butother crafts as well. The wheels grindvery slowly but once it’s in the statutes,it becomes law.I must say that many of the actions I tookwhile in the David Scannell Club were notwell received by the membership. Yet itwas also true that I gained more supportfrom my former antagonists. As I gatheredmore and more supporters, I introducedmore and more reforms. WhenI put a stop to solicitations of ads in theyearbook and the sale of Firemen’s Balltickets, my popularity increased by leapsand bounds. The men were glad to berid of the job of going out in full dressuniform year after year demanding merchantsto purchase ads in the yearbookand to purchase Firemen’s Ball tickets.The yearbook was presumed to be theproperty of the Veteran Firemen’s Association,but in reality, it belonged toa select group of members. This majoraccomplishment established me as a firmcontender in any political confrontationfrom that time on.Some years later, I was instrumental inconvincing the membership to join theAFL-CIO-CIO. We became Local 798 ofthe International Association of Firefighters.In spite of terrific opposition fromBob Callahan, our Secretary, and outspokenrepresentative in legislative matters, Iwas elected President in 1948. Bob wasdeeply concerned when I secured thevotes necessary to amalgamate with theUnion. He believed that we should maintaina neutral position in our struggle withorganized labor on the one-hand and thedowntown groups on the other. I didn’twin by much, but I did win.We were no sooner in the Union, whena letter was sent by our local to all firehouses.It stated that in our opinion,each man should belong to the Unionand if a man refused to join the Union,no man should let that man use any of hispersonal equipment. Firemen owned everythingin the firehouse except the rigs,the stove, the bedsteads, chairs and tablesin the sitting room and other parts ofthe house. Everything else was ours. Wehad to purchase our own uniforms, workclothes, helmets, turnouts, boots, housepants, jeans, pots, pans, dishes, food condiments,blankets, towels, soap, etc. Thedepartment did furnish axes and beltswith spanners.Our letter inferred that each of our membersshould treat non-members as if theydidn’t exist, but did not actually say so.When we were non-Union, we had membershipof the “rank and file” of 80% andabout 50% of the “gold braid.” Once wewww.sffdlocal798.org Main Line 15