Edzo's Greed Threatens the Future of Union Release Time
In his town hall, Edzo becomes witness number one for the Goldwater Institute.
When asked if he would be a full-time General President if elected, Edzo said no. “I wouldn’t retire” he said.
Then he doubled-down. He explained that he gets paid by BFD to never show up at work. “I don’t know if that translates to other locals” he said. Then he said “For me to retire doesn’t make much sense”.
That he doesn't know how that translates to other locals means he's not qualified to be IAFF General President.
The fact that he doesn't care and is absolutely abusing union release time when the uber anti union Goldwater Institute is attacking union release time should disqualify him from getting any endorsements from any locals who rely on it.
Read more from the Goldwater Institute HERE https://goldwaterinstitute.org/releasetimesolutions/
Union release time, if Edzo knew anything about union work, is critical for a local president to be able to protect and defend his or her members in their local department while they also have to pull their shifts. It’s meant to give the local president some shifts off so they can do work related to protecting the members of that department.
In some places, sisters and brothers on the job have to work shifts for no money to fill in for the local president so he/she can do their job defending the members. Most leaders press on without the benefit of release time.
In big locals it takes more time to do your union work so there’s generally more release time.
In Boston, it means not having to do anything for your department AT ALL and still getting Boston taxpayers to fund your almost $200k firefighter job while you're also earning over $300k as IAFF GST (or maybe GP?).
It came about out of fairness because if the local president was working all the time, how would they be able to fix problems and defend against unfair discipline?
Union release time was not created for Edzo or any union leader to abuse the concept to get rich. But Edzo thinks him making half a million dollars a year just makes sense.
He’s so dirty (or stupid) he doesn’t even get that his abuse of union release time is threatening it for all IAFF leaders everywhere who need it in order to do their job protecting our members.
His friends at the Goldwater Institute are going after union release time in Austin. Goldwater has been trying to kill it in Arizona for awhile as well and they are launching new attacks on release time in New Jersey and other places. Edzo's reckless actions are anti union and could kill this valuable need for our locals.
With the Edzo example of waste fraud and taxpayer abuse, he's giving our enemies plenty of ammunition. If they succeed Edzo deserves the blame for his greed and selfishness.
The harm he is likely to cause to our union on this issue is incalculable. His greed threatens all of us.
Aside from that, him continuing to hold his spot at BFD also aces another kid from getting a job in that department. God forbid Edzo think about another kid who just wants to be a firefighter, he's proven he truly only gives a shit about himself.
This entire thing is about Mission Edzo, not the IAFF, our members or union. It's all about him and he proves it over and over.
Edzo is already threatening to harm thousands of local leaders by abusing his union release time. That’s on top of all of the other shit you already know he’s guilty of. Send him back to BFD. Don’t give him a chance to hurt our union even more.
It’s time for real leaders to stand up and pull their endorsement from a guy who threatens our union this way solely for his own enrichment.