Harold A. Schaitberger
Harold A. Schaitberger is an American labor leader who has served as General President of the International Association of Fire Fighters since 2000.
Harold A. Schaitberger is the ninth president in the IAFF’s 95-year history, and was the first to have been elected by acclamation in 2000. He was re-elected to another four-year term in July 2012. Under his leadership, the IAFF’s Political Action Committee, FIREPAC, has grown to more than $4.6 million and ranks among the top one percent of PACs in the nation. His commitment to ensuring that the IAFF supports candidates and lawmakers who are friendly to fire fighters and their issues, regardless of political party, has significantly enhanced the union’s power and influence at all levels of politics.
Prior to Schaitberger's first election as IAFF General President, Harold Schaitberger had served on the union's headquarters staff as a top advisor to three IAFF Presidents since 1976, and as President of the Virginia Professional Fire Fighters union since 1973. In 1970, he was elected as the first president of the local affiliate of the IAFF in Fairfax County, Virginia. He began his professional career as a firefighter rising to the rank of lieutenant.
Recently, the New York Times ran an article chronicling Schaitbergers rampant spending habits. He faces reelection this August at the IAFF convention in Las Vegas. In a stunning rebuke, the Virgina Firefighters Union, Schaitbergers home union, refused to endorse him.
