At a delegate meeting in March, members of the Fire Brigades Union voted overwhelmingly to throw out a pay package offered by the employers and endorsed by General Secretary Andy Gilchrist and by the FBU National Executive. This is just the latest twist in what has been a roller-coaster of a pay battle, which began with solid strikes and popular support for a 40 percent claim. The "on again, off again" attitude to strike action and the erratic line charted by the FBU leadership raise issues for fire fighters, while the stubborn line of ministers to the firefighters and insistence upon attaching strings raises the question of union links with New Labour. This discussion article by Chris Jones, former FBU Brigade Chair in Merseyside, and a member of the Revolutionary Democratic Group, was written in January, and has been abridged for publication.
The firefighters' dispute moved Trement o an The tenther
first month of 2003. The offensive led by the FBU executive against the erosion of firefighters' and control staff's pay had become a defensive battle.
Quietly the 40 percent claim had been allowed to fall out of sight. The 16 percent deal phased over two years, first tabled by the employers in July 2002, had become the favoured option.
Symbolically the Morning Star removed the 40 percent headline claim from its banner on the front page.
The dispute is now as much about saving the conditions of FBU members and existing levels of fire cover for the public as it is about pay. This was the root of the FBU's refusal to negotiate whilst the employers insisted on acceptance of modernisation and the Bain Report as a precondition to a negotiated deal on pay.
Following the worrying phoney war over Christmas, during which the FBU membership were left to drift, the FBU began to set out a policy of long-term guerrilla action taking the dispute forward into 2003.
The FBU dispute has become a test of the entire trade union movement and the attitudes that workers and trade unionists need to adopt to New Labour in government.
It is also a test of the new breed of left trade union leaders, the 'awkward squad", and Andy Gilchrist's leadership in particular.
The question that is most commonly asked by firefighters and their friends and allies is "what sense do you make" of the FBU leadership's tactics and the leadership of Andy Gilchrist in particular?
In terms of the practical questions facing FBU members, a successful resolution of the dispute rests on the capacity of activists within the FBU to organise in such a way as to allow the membership to act independ ently of the leadership, should that prove The FBU daim
legitimate demands over pa upported by FBU members
and achieved significant and resilient public support, notably more resilient than the
support achieved in 1977.
The problem for the FBU was that the
claim contradicted the long-term strategy of
the New Labour government. That strategy relied upon minor increases in expenditure on key public services associated with performance requirements that ground out large increases in productivity.
In short the government could not afford to allow the tiny increases in public expenditure to be leached away in pay awards.
The decision to move away from the pay formula, agreed following the strike of the winter of 1977/8, was a difficult one. The FBU knew from the start that the battle would be a protracted and complex process' and that the employers will certainly insist on something' (FBU Statement
The turn of events with the government sponsored Bain Report and demands for 'modernisation, interpreted as cuts in staffing and erosion of conditions, should have been no surprise to the FBU leadership or rank and file activists.
The employers had a detailed offer to table in July 2002. This would have produced a 16 percent rise in a phased deal over two years and was part of a complete package that recognised the need for a new pay formula and reviewed key conditions of service. It was pulled after intervention by
From this point the offers tabled by the employers have ratcheted down under pressure from the government and latterly in line with the Bain Report.
The FBU leadership was initially highly successful in projecting the 40 percent claim, but it has proved to be unable to maintain its position under pressure. The 16 percent, offered in July, has become the de facto ceiling for the FBU's pay claim. Full circle - the fire last time
ahe strike in 1977 was won against a reluctant Executive Bed thene
opposition General Secretary of the FBU, Terry Parry. The pressure came from below and was
expressed in independent action in oppo
sicion to left
When the strike began in November
9T7 t was goven no support by the TUC
and public support was extremety limited
Atter onty a few short weeks 70 percent of
the public opposed the FBU action.
This was a strike driven by the membership against opposition at all levels of the
trade union movement and against a Labour
government.
The strike was settled but never achieved •••• the FBU, with and called authorities
The most recent was the campaign against the Chief Officer on Merseyside The FBU targeted Malcolm Saunders, the Chief Officer, and called openly for his removal. Mr Saunders went, in what remain mysterious circumstances, well rewarded with a medical pension.
The 1990s had taught the FBU to fight alone without significant political or wider trade union support. The question remained whether this would be enough in a major national dispute
In 1977 the FBU was faced with a Labour government that had a formal wages policy that restricted pay awards to 10 percent This was in the context of years of wages in the public sector falling in real terms, espe cially in the fire service, as inflation erode spending power. One estimate put the fall in