The longtime president of the International Association of Fire Fighters will not run for reelection in January as the union faces a federal investigation into allegedly improper pension payments.
"This is the most difficult communication that I’ve had to deliver to all of you over my 49 years with this incredible IAFF of ours," Harold Schaitberger wrote in an email sent to the organization's 300,000 members, according to the Wall Street Journal.
"I have sadly watched as division has been sewn within our ranks," he added. "I see much of the anger and politics of personal destruction that have spread on social media. The innuendo, baseless allegations and misleading accusations. There’s no accountability and, that, in my view, has harmed our great union.
"This IAFF is too important. I cannot stand by and allow our union to become even more divided."
According to the Journal, the FBI, the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington, D.C., and the Labor Department have sent subpoenas to the IAFF concerning pension payments allegedly given to leaders who were still employed by the union. Schaitberger, who has been IAFF president since 2001, is accused of receiving more than $1 million in pension payments, sources told the Journal.
"The IAFF strongly reaffirms that it did not engage in any wrongdoing,” the union said in a statement. “The documents requested relate to issues that were approved by the elected IAFF Executive Board over the past 20 years under the guidance of pension actuaries and legal counsel.”
While not directly mentioning the investigation in his letter, Schaitberger did say he had "been, wrongly, the stalking horse of much of the false information, division, anger and rancor that I see taking place in so many of our districts." He compared the division among members to the current political division among the American public as the Nov. 3 election approaches.
