Stephen Cassidy
Under his leadership, the UFA has led campaigns to educate New Yorkers and their elected leaders on first responder issues, which have resulted in the preservation of staffing and community firehouses scheduled for closure by the City of New York.
[5] Cassidy also served on the Scientific and Technical Advisory Committee for the James L. Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act and as a member of the September 11th Worker Protection Task Force.
In September 2008, Cassidy was appointed to the International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF) Hazardous Materials and Weapons of Mass Destruction (Hazmat/) Advisory board.
He holds the position of Vice President and Executive Board member of the New York City Central Labor Council, a coalition of over 300 unions representing 1.3 million workers.
[8] In 2016, the UFA published a white paper revealing that the City of New York had been underreporting emergency response times in its public data reports (http://www.ufanyc.org/pdf/022916.pdf).
[citation needed] Cassidy and the UFA leadership aggressively called upon the federal government to provide medical care for firefighters and other first responders impacted by the September 11 attacks in 2001 (9/11).
On December 13, 2006, following public pressure by Cassidy, a plan was finalized to list fallen members of the FDNY, New York City Police Department, and all other first responders together by command or company.
[17] On June 3, 2011, over 15,000 New Yorkers joined firefighters in marching across the Brooklyn Bridge to a rally outside of New York City Hall to protest another Mayor Bloomberg plan to shut fire companies.
Cassidy and the UFA immediately called for an independent investigation into how two firefighters died and scores of others were injured fighting a fire in a high-rise toxic, vacant building that was under deconstruction.
As a result of continuing pressure from the UFA, on August 23, 2007, the New York Post published an editorial calling for the Fire Commissioner to be terminated, stating, "Mayor Bloomberg needs Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta’s badge on his desk by close of business day.” In a New York 1 interview almost a year after the fire, Cassidy said, "Two of our firefighters died protecting what is essentially a vertical Love Canal which was abandoned years ago.
Cassidy was a recipient of the 2016 Ellis Island Medal of Honor, which since 1986 has acknowledged individuals who exemplify American values of patriotism, freedom, liberty and compassion in their work.
Other recipients have included Hillary Rodham Clinton, Donald Trump, Henry Kissinger, Colin Powell, Rosa Parks, Muhammad Ali and Frank Sinatra.
