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IN 2021, this blog revealed how leaders of the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) had made secret ‘hush money’ payments to a string of employees who had complained of mistreatment. These employees were required to sign ‘gagging’ orders and, in many cases, details of the confidential pay-offs were withheld even from the union’s ruling executive council.… Continue reading REVEALED: How bullying FBU leaders hounded a 66-year-old female employee and almost drove her out of her job

SO THE FIRE and rescue service pay dispute is over. In a consultative ballot, 96% of FBU members voted to accept a revised offer of an increase of seven per cent for the current year, backdated to the original pay settlement date of 1 July 2022, with a further five per cent for the year… Continue reading Pay dispute ends: our assessment and learning the lessons

ON 4 OCTOBER, the FBU leadership announced that a revised five per cent pay offer – an improvement on a previous two per cent offer – had been received from the national fire service employers. The following day, the union’s executive council decided that the fresh offer would be put to members in a consultative… Continue reading Pay campaign: FBU leadership must end the drift and inertia

WE STAND ON the brink of a national pay strike in the fire and rescue service. The FBU will, according to a circular from general secretary Matt Wrack issued on 6 September 2022, begin balloting members next week. Yet the leadership has still not recalled the union’s annual conference to discuss the matter. This is… Continue reading Ballot for national strike action to begin next week. So why has the FBU’s parliament still not been recalled?

NOMINATIONS HAVE CLOSED in the election for assistant general secretary (AGS) of the FBU. Campaign for a Democratic FBU understands that the main candidates are the current vice-president and executive council member for the East Midlands, Ben Selby, and the executive council member for London, Dave Shek. Assuming both accept nomination, the union will hold… Continue reading Election for assistant general secretary. Who should members support?

IT IS CLEAR now that FBU annual conference must be recalled as a matter of urgency. The decision by the executive council to hold a ballot for national strike action over pay has ignited debate among members across the country. A number of members, while supportive of the ballot, have raised questions about the aims,… Continue reading Why “Please, sir, may we have some more?” does not cut it as a demand in a national pay dispute

IN FIVE WEEKS’ time, the FBU will begin balloting its entire membership for national strike action in response to the employers’ derisory offer of a 2% increase in pay. In a video released yesterday, general secretary Matt Wrack confirmed that the executive council (EC) had decided against tabling a clearly-defined pay claim. Instead, it would… Continue reading National strike: why the FBU must put a figure on its pay claim

THE FBU’s executive council has today (6 September) released a statement on pay. The statement informs members that a ballot for national strike action will be held in response to the unacceptable 2% pay offer made by the fire service employers back in June. This blog today makes the demand for an urgent recall of… Continue reading As national fire strike looms, FBU annual conference must be recalled!

RUMMAGING THROUGH THE basement archives at CDFBU Towers, we found an old edition of Solidarity, a now-defunct Left-wing bulletin produced by a veteran trade union campaigner. The particular edition we stumbled upon dated from 2004 – in the period after a bitter national strike in the fire and rescue service – and featured an interview… Continue reading So which FBU official said..?

IN RESPONSE to our previous blog, highlighting how FBU annual conference in May supported a resolution calling for volunteer relief teams who did not support the causes of the LGBT movement to be prevented from offering assistance, in the way of food and drink, to fire crews at protracted and large-scale incidents, some senior officials… Continue reading Are senior FBU officials right to claim the union does not want to see the back of the Salvation Army at major incidents? (Answer: no)