For Immediate Release                                                                                                   
August 23, 2008 
Contact: Bill Glanz 
(202) 329-5856 cell                                                                                                                

International Association of Fire Fighters Applauds Senator Barack Obama’s Choice for Vice President

Washington, DC – The International Association of Fire Fighters today applauded the choice of Senator Joe Biden for vice president by presumptive Democratic nominee Senator Barack Obama.

“Joe Biden is a fantastic choice for vice president. Senator Biden is a friend of labor and working families and he has a strong record on homeland security issues,” IAFF General President Harold Schaitberger said.

The IAFF, the most bipartisan union in the AFL-CIO, endorsed Senator Obama on August 14, praising the Illinois senator for his support of fire fighters and working families. Senator Biden also spoke to fire fighters at the IAFF convention on August 14.

“Adding Joe Biden to the ticket just solidifies our support for Senator Obama. Senator Biden has always been a friend of fire fighters, just like Senator Obama,” Schaitberger said.

An Obama-Biden team represents the best chance fire fighters have to obtain collective bargaining rights, protect overtime pay, preserve employer-sponsored health care and preserve funding for the SAFER grant program, a crucial program that provides funding to help fire departments hire additional fire fighters and ensure that they have sufficient numbers of adequately trained personnel to respond to emergency situations quickly and safely.

Senator John McCain opposes collective bargaining rights for fire fighters and police officers, has indicated he favors appointing judges to the federal bench who may overturn court decisions that guarantee overtime pay to fire fighters and other rights outlined in the Fair Labor Standards Act, and has sided with the Bush administration in its attempts to zero out the SAFER program. Senator McCain’s health care plan encourages elimination of employer-sponsored health care, preferring to place the burden on individuals to find and purchase their own health care.

The International Association of Fire Fighters, headquartered in Washington, DC, represents more than 290,000 full-time professional fire fighters and paramedics who protect 85 percent of the nation’s population. More than 3,100 affiliates and their members protect communities in every state in the United States and in Canada. The IAFF is one of the most active lobbying organizations in Washington; its Political Action Committee, FIREPAC, is among the top one percent of the more than 4,000 PACs in the country. More information is available at www.iaff.org and at www.firefightersforobama.com.

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