More Questions Loom About the Muscular Dystrophy Association’s Payments to the Firefighter’s Union
The International Association of Fire Fighters’ latest annual report was recently posted on the U.S. Department of Labor Office of Labor Management Standards site. Since this report only covers the period between October 1, 2023 and September 30, 2024, we don’t have a full picture of their finances for last year yet. However, we see that they still received money from the Muscular Dystrophy Association — $162,500, to be exact.
One thing to note is that, as of now, there isn’t a record of any payments from MDA to the IAFF in 2024. While this might be good news, it fails to answer several questions.
· Is this a permanent end to the payments, or is this this temporary? MDA had paused payments in 2020 but picked them back up at the end of 2021, giving the IAFF $1.3 million since then.
· MDA has given the IAFF $7.23 million since 2015. Why? And why won’t MDA explain this to us if they are legitimate costs? Why are we still waiting for this answer after more than five years and while Fill the Boot drives are still occurring?
· Why did the IAFF’s LM2 forms change their description of the payments? They went from “contribution” to “donation” to “A/R”(?) to “service reimbursement”. Going just by these classifications, why was MDA contributing or donating to the IAFF? And what type of service was worth nearly $1.6 million?
If this is indeed a permanent end to the payments, it would be a welcome change. But it begs another question — why now? The payments were exposed years ago and continued all these years. Could it be that more firefighters are learning about them? Remember, the payments were not given to fire stations or the firefighters themselves. They were given to union officers. And many firefighters in the IAFF didn’t even know about the payments until the LM2s came out. Most firefighters in the United States aren’t even union members, so the brave men and women working so hard to raise money for MDA were being scammed as well.
Many of the local fire stations in my area stopped taking part in Fill the Boot after they found out, and it looks like they have been spreading the word. The following comments were posted on a message board for firefighters.
“I’m a career firefighter and I’m NOT in favor of collecting money for MDA. Most of the money doesn’t actually go to help those with muscular dystrophy. Instead most of the money lines the pockets of the CEO and other top executives.”
“MDA Fill the boot is a complete scam!!! It is a corrupt organization filled with lying criminals and thieves and for some reason people still think it’s OK to use the fire department for this cause. All they do is steal money and people still keep believing the nonsense and lies. There’s absolutely zero reason any fire department should be a part of this disgusting panhandling garbage”
“It’s a crap organization where barely any of the money goes where they say it does. The kick backs to the IAFF was the last straw for me. I refuse to go out and do it for my department.”
“I’ve been pushing my department to move away from mda for like 2 years. I think before next year’s round of it, I’m going to take a poll on our union and propose we go with a charity like St Jude or something.”
“Controversial opinion: I’m not a fan. Their motto was something like:”To find a cure”. After raising a lot of money for them, by standing on the corner like a prostitute, I learned that we’re actually raising money to send children with muscular dystrophy to an overpriced camp & to pay their CEO over 800k a year. It’s definitely not worth having any of us injured.”
If firefighters are discovering the truth about MDA and refuse to participate in Fill the Boot, is that what stopped the payments from MDA?
Only time will tell if the payments will start up again. But will MDA ever be honest with us about why they were made in the first place?
Until these questions are answered, please do your due diligence as you consider donating to MDA.
And please continue to support firefighters. They are our true heroes, and it’s important to remember that all the time, not just when we have catastrophic wildfires like the ones in California. Let them know they are appreciated for all they do.
