Wisconsin union leader out over racist remark
Rick Gale from WISN-TV. Watch Monday’s story.
Here is an update from AP on a story we told you about this morning:
The head of the state firefighters union resigned Tuesday over a racist comment he made the day after Barack Obama became the first African-American to be elected president.
The Professional Fire Fighters of Wisconsin announced the resignation of Rick Gale and said his comment was “offensive, inappropriate and racially insensitive and does not reflect the views of our union.”
Gale, who headed the union for eight years, admitted in his letter of resignation that he used the “single racially charged word” during a private, casual conversation while having drinks with several board members at a hotel after a PFFW board meeting Nov. 5.
“The word has no business in my vocabulary and I should not have used it — not even in private,” he wrote.
“In doing so I let myself, the PFFW Executive Board and the entire membership down,” he added. “I am sorry. I have asked the PFFW and the public to accept my deepest and sincerest apology.”
Gale, a lieutenant with the West Allis Fire Department, said he was also resigning from all the governmental and public boards on which he served.
Those posts include membership on the State of Wisconsin Retirement Board as an appointee of Gov. Jim Doyle, an ardent supporter of Obama throughout the presidential race.
Gale had worked on Obama’s Wisconsin campaign.
Obama was endorsed for president by the International Association of Fire Fighters, whose general president Harold Schaitberger issued a memo to its Wisconsin affiliates commenting on the resignation by saying Gale’s comments were “inexcusable.”
“However, this is also an opportunity to restate clearly my fundamental goal of building a union that is free from all forms of bigotry and bias,” Schaitberger said.
According to a memo from the PFFW executive board to union members, an anonymous caller had alerted the local in Madison the day after Gale used the offensive term, prompting the executive board to hold a special meeting in Fond du Lac Saturday.
Gale agreed to issue a written apology to union members and undergo education and counseling.
Then members of seven union locals representing PFFW members met in Janesville Monday and called for Gale’s resignation.
Gale did not return phone messages left Tuesday at his home and office by The Associated Press seeking comment.
