FBU

By Nick Holden The leadership of the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) has conceded that Paul Woolstenholmes, the National Officer suspended in a witch-hunt against those who criticised the leadership during the pay dispute, has no case to answer, and can return to work. This is a defeat for the Gilchrist leadership. Ever since Woolstenholmes beat the sitting National Officer in an election during the dispute, the Gilchrist leadership has been running scared. It has used witch-hunts and delaying tactics to avoid being held to account by a membership increasingly angry about the collapse of the pay...

By Nick Holden Fire Brigades Union (FBU) leaders are claiming a victory in the final stages of their two year long pay dispute. They say management are finally paying previously-agreed pay increases from the 2003 pay deal. However, as the rank and file body Grassroots FBU point out, “the employers were able to delay payment of the 3.5% and 4.2% because of the vague and inadequate pay deal negotiated by the FBU leadership in 2003”. The whole history of the FBU pay campaign is one of continual retreat — right at the beginning of the dispute at the end of 2002 the leadership called off strike...

By Joan Trevor Pay talks between local authority employers and the Fire Brigades Union broke down at the start of August, with the union claiming that New Labour had packed a meeting to wreck them. Firefighters are still waiting for increases to pay promised as part of the deal to end industrial action during the 2003 pay dispute. Now the union is balloting for new strike action. Rank and file firefighters, angry at their treatment by the government, and ready to fight again, must organise to ensure they have control over any new dispute. The FBU leadership cannot be allowed to mismanage...

By Nick Holden As the dust settles from the FBU's decision last month to disaffiliate from the Labour Party, union activists continue to prepare for a possible strike over pay, with at least one hand tied behind their backs by their own union leadership. FBU leaders have continued to seek negotiations with employers, including meeting with the TUC. As things stand, the FBU will be balloting for industrial action in August unless the employers pay the second and third instalments of last year's pay agreement before the end of this month. The chances of that seem slim, but the record of the FBU...

Anger at the Government's treatment of firefighters since the 2002 pay dispute came to a head on 17 June when the Fire Brigades Union conference voted overwhelmingly to disaffiliate from the Labour Party. Delegates backed disaffiliation by five to one on a show of hands, and by 35,105-to-14,611 on a card vote, rejecting a proposal from the FBU's Executive Council to reduce the union's affiliation fee from £30,000 to £20,000 as part of a political fight within the Labour Party. Those supporting the disaffiliation motion - submitted by the union's Northern Ireland, Strathclyde and Greater...

By Nick Holden After suspending conference on 11 May the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) exec went into extensive negotiations with the employers over the conditions they wanted to implement in stage two of the 2002 pay award. A "compromise" agreement was struck and agreed by the Executive that firefighters would give up the right to "stand down time". The deal followed widespread unofficial action over the issue - stand down was widely seen as a dispute which the FBU leadership couldn't lose, and couldn't afford to. Yet apparently they were prepared to "give it away". Later the FBU heard that the...

The Fire Brigades Union conference has voted approximately five to one in favour of disaffiliating from the Labour Party. A formal card vote is still being counted as I write. The defeat of the union Executive's alternative proposal, to remain affiliated but open up the possibility of supporting some non-Labour candidates, was ensured by the members' utter frustration with being repeatedly let down by this once popular and reputedly left-wing union leadership. The decision, unfortunately, reflects frustration and disillusion more than any clear positive alternative direction. Meanwhile, the...