Montana Professional Fire Fighters (MPFF) have defeated more than 120 attempts to pass legislation aimed at stripping away labour rights, including bills that would have established right to work, eliminated dues deduction, and reduced pension benefits.

The MPFF also successfully lobbied to add prostate and cervical cancer to their presumption law. 

“The state government is the most conservative it has been in a long time, which is a difficult environment for labour,” said 7th District Vice President Ricky Walsh. “But our Montana sisters and brothers have really stepped up to the plate and made the changes they needed to make to be effective. I am very proud of President Richards and his team for their hard work.” 

MPFF President George Richards said that with a new governor and new faces in the state legislature, there was a high level of concern that the supermajority would lead to attacks on labor and the issues important to us: “We knew we were going to need more boots on the ground if we were going to successfully protect the interests of our members.” 

While the new strategy has not stopped lawmakers from trying to move anti-labour legislation, MPFF said that it has prevented unfavourable bills from becoming law.  

Richards added: “Thanks to the relationships our fire fighter lobbyists created, we were able to stop the bad bills while they were still in committee. Three did make it out of committee, but we were able to defeat those too.”