FBU

Fire Brigades Union

Industrial news in brief

National Union of Teachers members in sixth form colleges will be striking on Tuesday 15 March after a ballot over funding which returned 86% in favour of strikes on a 44% turnout. NUT deputy general secretary Kevin Courtney said: “This strong ballot result shows the strength of feeling amongst sixth-form college teachers. Sixth-form colleges provide a vital service to over 150,000 young people, many of whom are from disadvantaged backgrounds. “Funding has already been cut in real terms by 14 per cent and further real-terms cuts of 8 per cent are now planned. Colleges are dropping courses and...

FBU to debate Labour reaffiliation

The Corbyn surge could receive an important boost in the next month with the announcement that the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) will consider reaffiliation to the Labour Party. The union’s executive has called a recall conference on 27 November to debate affiliation. The FBU disaffiliated from the Labour Party in 2004 after a bitter pay dispute, where the Blair government intervened aggressively on the side of the employers. A combination of disgust with the disgraceful behaviour of Labour ministers, anti-political sentiment, nationalism in the devolved administrations and plans by some activists...

Unions should back Corbyn for Labour leader

Jeremy Corbyn’s campaign for Labour leader is getting a strong response. In addition to being the only campaign with national trade union support (Unite, BFAWU, ASLEF, TSSA, as well as RMT and FBU), Corbyn is now clear second in terms of nominations from Constituency Labour Parties, with 36 to Andy Burnham’s 47; Yvette Cooper is on 28 and Liz Kendall on only 5. CLP nominations have no direct impact, but they do indicate strength of support among Labour activists. It is now pretty standard for meetings addressed by Corbyn to be attended by hundreds. 400 turned out to hear him speak in...

FBU conference report: fight anti-union laws!

FBU conference took place last week 11-15 May, one of the first union conferences since the general election. Discussion revolved around the incoming Tory government and the likely onslaught firefighters and other workers will face in the coming period. The Tories’ new raft of anti-union laws represent a major class-wide attack. The FBU will be at the forefront of these restrictions, not least because of the 50+ strikes it has organised on pensions, shifts and cuts over the last five years. The FBU was criticised by the Carr review, set up originally to investigate Unite’s tactics. One of the...

Industrial news in brief

Pat Hutton, GMB rep at Queen Elizabeth Hospital where workers have been on strike to win the same terms and conditions as in-house workers, spoke to Solidarity . "Since our last strikes at Christmas, GMB has been going round hospitals where they recruited scabs — in Liverpool, Coventry, Westminster, Chelsea, Kingston — organising to stop it. A lot of the scabs were casuals and didn’t know what was going on. With the help of GMB in those places we put a stop to it. Here at QEH we’ve been pushing on with recruiting new members — we have over 250 now — and geeing people up. We had a plan for the...

Industrial news in brief

Fire control operators in Essex have escalated strike plans to eight days this week in an increasingly bitter row over cuts and shift changes. FBU control members walked out at 07:00 on Tuesday 10 March and vowed not return until 07:00 on Wednesday 18 March. A new imposed shift system has seen some emergency control operators having to leave their jobs or drastically reduce their hours and pay, with many more considering their future with the service. The majority of strikers are women, who say these shift changes are unfair and completely unnecessary as there are alternatives on the table...

FBU: “we will not go away”

The FBU has called a further 24 hour strike in England on Wednesday 25 February, starting at 7 am, in its long-running pensions campaign. The union has also called a demonstration at Westminster at noon on the day of the strike. The strike was called after the union exposed a sham “guarantee” given in parliament to enable ministers to force through their unworkable proposals. On 15 December, the government pushed through new firefighters’ pension scheme regulations. During the debate, fire minister Penny Mordaunt gave a clear guarantee in parliament that firefighters aged 55 who failed a...

Industrial news in brief

As Solidarity went to press on 20 January, health unions were meeting with Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt. The NHS pay dispute is escalating. It started timidly with two days of four-hour strikes. But now there will be a 12 hour strike on 29 January, followed by a 24 hour strike on 25 February involving most of the unions in the NHS. There were problems with the two four hour strikes. In some areas unions scuppered their own action by granting lavish “exemptions”, encouraging many members to go to work. However there has been large public support for strikes, and picket lines have been lively...

Industrial news in brief

As Solidarity went to press on 13 January, bus drivers across London were staging a 24 hour strike in a bid to level up pay across the capital. London’s bus network is outsourced to 18 different companies. Each one of these companies has their own pay scales and the union Unite must separately negotiate pay with all 18 companies. As a result pay differs by up to £3 an hour across the capital for drivers doing the same work. Unite is calling for a London wide pay scale. Solidarity visited picket lines on Tuesday 13 January. Each one had upwards of 20 pickets in a lively mood. In many depots no...

Firefighters strike over pensions

Firefighters in England began another 24 hours of strike action as Solidarity went to press, as part of the FBU’s long-running pensions dispute. The FBU also called a demonstration in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire on the same day, to rally activists for the pensions fight and to show solidarity with FBU executive council member Ricky Matthews, who was sacked during the four-day strike in November. Firefighters gathered in Aylesbury to demonstrate their anger with government proposals to make them work to 60. The FBU has also had success with its political campaign to get the regulations going...

This website uses cookies, you can find out more and set your preferences here.
By continuing to use this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions.