fighting back

"My father told me I should join the fire[fighters]. He said, ‘You’ll never get rich, but you’ll get a raise every year. You’ll never get laid off. And you’ll get a decent pension.’ Now Everything’s changed.’’

Bob McCarthy was a Watertown firefighter for 34 years. He has been the president of the Professional Fire Fighters of Massachusetts, the state fire union, for the last 24 years.

Firefighters were always popular. But in recent years, around here they’ve had to fight for their jobs, and they, like other people paid by taxpayers, are suddenly on the defensive.

McCarthy said. “People’s retirement plans took a big hit on the stock market. Then everybody looked at the public unions and said, ‘Hey, why I should be paying for their pensions and benefits when mine are being cut?' The anti-public union sentiment used to be in pockets. But now it’s national. If I had to put a time frame on it, I’d say there was a real change when the economy went downhill in 2008,’’I think that’s the wrong question. The right question is, why are companies in the private sector so bent on profits that they don’t want to take care of their workers? There’s a bunch of think tanks out there, funded by private industry, and they’ve done a good job whipping up anti-union sentiment. But again, I’d ask people to ask themselves: Who’s making a big deal about this, and in whose interest is this being done? The anger is new. But the story isn’t new,’’ Bob McCarthy said. “It’s a story as old as time. The rich and the powerful turning working people against each other. And I ask you: who benefits from that?"

McCarthy adds “When I started on the job, we had five guys on a truck. You’re lucky to have three now. Two-thirds of the fire departments in Massachusetts are understaffed. Only 10 percent of departments can respond to a real disaster. I buried a firefighter in Framingham the other day. Cancer. He was 57. That’s the actuarial age of the average firefighter in Massachusetts. Firefighters aren’t living to ripe old ages.’’

McCarthy might be going away. but his union isn’t.