Caught Lying, Again
On Friday, IAFF General President Harold Schaitberger sent out a bizarre email with the following paragraph to all IAFF affiliate leaders:
“I’m writing to inform you that as of Wednesday, October 28, 2015, I accepted Pete Gorman’s resignation as IAFF Chief of Staff. Pete served as a fire fighter and fire officer of FDNY for 34 years, was previously President of IAFF Local 854, and he came to the IAFF eight years ago. He was provided a severance benefit package commensurate with his years of service to this union.”
He sent it to about 5,000 IAFF members with information, presumed to be private, regarding details of Gorman’s departure.
It was an email blast to all who could read.
And, it was a cynical lie by omission.
Schaitberger, of course, knew it, full and well.
Two days earlier, on October 28, at 5:40 PM, Schaitberger sent an email to a select few with the following header:
“CONFIDENTIAL MATTER, PREVILAGED COMMUNICATION, NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION”
(Yes, he can’t even spell “privileged” correctly.)
In that secret email, he said,
“This is to notify you that today General Counsel Tom Woodley, Legal Counsel Doug Steele and myself met with Chief of Staff Pete Gorman and that his employment has been separated effective immediately, ending his tenure as IAFF Chief of Staff. Pete was offered the opportunity to tender a letter of resignation and declined to do so at this time.”
Simply put, Schaitberger fired Pete Gorman on Wednesday and tried to keep that fact secret from IAFF affiliate leaders on Friday.
In the same “confidential” email Schaitberger also said,
“I am not going to address any further details and the issues surrounding this separation in writing at this time.”
On Wednesday he refused to put anything more in writing and on Friday he wrote to 5,000 people.
If you can’t hide it, then lie about it and spin it.
Whatever Gorman had to do after his firing to protect his family is immaterial in light of the fact that Schaitberger fired him, then tried to keep that fact secret and eventually tried to cover it up.
Who Shares the Blame?
Why, we do, of course.
We all drank the kool-aid, handed over the car keys, took the oath, etc.
But we can change things, too.
If this is really a democratic organization, tell your elected leadership to do three very simple things:
– Stop inviting Schaitberger to local, state and provincial events. After all, do you really need to listen to lies?
– Stop going to Schaitberger’s fancy dinners which cost hundreds-of-thousands annually and do nothing more than fulfill his personal agenda. Let him eat alone.
– Consider withholding and escrowing IAFF dues payments until the executive board develops a plan to control Schaitberger and reform the IAFF. If they are up to the task, that is.
To be honest, who really wants to go out to dinner with the man who fired one of the most gifted leaders, elected or appointed, the IAFF has ever seen?
Pete Gorman, a 42-year member of the IAFF, deserved better–much better.
Remember, we are only powerless because we lack the courage to act.
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