FBU general secretary Matt Wrack speaks to the socialist
Firefighters prepare to strike against pensions’ robbery
Matt
Wrack was elected general secretary of the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) in
May 2005 as a left-wing challenger to the incumbent general secretary
Andy Gilchrist.
Matt spoke to the socialist about the battle the union is now
undertaking to defend its members’ pension scheme and how the union is
developing.
Matt Wrack speaks at the Socialist Party’s Socialism 2005
"WE’VE BEEN discussing pensions for about a year with the
government. They are proposing a new scheme for new entrants from April
2006 and changes to the existing scheme for new members. We also have
1,500 members in the local government scheme – emergency fire control
centre workers – who face the same changes as other local government
workers.
We have reached the stage where the negotiations haven’t made any
real progress and the FBU executive council therefore considered what
action to take. Our conference policy is that if there are any proposed
detrimental changes to our pension scheme our conference will be
recalled to discuss it. Our recall conference meets in Southport on 16
February.
A resolution is now being discussed by FBU members that would launch
a ballot for strike action. It has given FBU members extra confidence
that other workers in local government are also preparing to ballot for
strike action.
Undoubtedly, it’s important that, if at all possible, we co-ordinate
our campaign with other trade unions, that is clearly part of our policy
and part of the resolution being put to our members. Just announcing a
ballot has given a boost to our members at meetings I have attended
recently.
Our other national priority is the threat of regional fire control
centres. Each individual fire service now has its own control centre but
now the government plans to regionalise them. This will mean a loss of
jobs and for the public it will mean a poorer service. We are now
involved in a national campaign to try and stop it (see article below).
We have put counter-proposals which are being discussed in the
service at present.
Also, at a local level there is an ongoing threat to jobs and fire
cover, which is tied up in all the jargon about ‘modernisation’ of the
fire service. What this means is attempts to get rid of fire engines and
close fire stations or a combination of the two.
For example, there are attempts being made to reduce cover at
night-time. On the one hand this means the public get a worse service
with less firefighters and engines available. For our members it means
the employers come along and try to change or impose shifts – making for
unworkable and unfriendly shifts.
Our union went through a big struggle a few years ago and clearly a number of employers and chief fire officers think the union is on the back foot and beaten. But, since 2003, we’ve already had two local brigades voting for strike action in Suffolk and the West Midlands, which in terms of following a national dispute is quite quick.
We’ve also had a number of other ballots for action short of a
strike. So the FBU is still there; still representing its members.
We now have a number of priorities. We need to re-engage with the
members and develop strategies to deal with the new environment. There
has been a certain shift away from national bargaining to localised
bargaining on certain issues, such as shifts for example. So we need to
make sure we’ve got training in place for local officials to take these
matters up.
We also need to pay attention to developing a new layer of activists
within the FBU for the future. The FBU has always been at the heart of
the fire service and we want to ensure it remains so.
I still see myself as an activist but one who happens to be in the
general secretary’s position. Obviously, it gives you a different
outlook and you do see some things from a different perspective.
One thing I always make clear to people is that they need to make
sure they have well-organised branches and committees to make sure
whoever is in the leadership has the structures that can control that
leadership – whether it’s me or anyone else.
I don’t take the full salary of the FBU general secretary; though I
don’t make a great deal of it. I’ve opened up a separate account and a
portion of my wages goes into a campaign fund which gives donations to
labour movement causes, campaigns and strikes.
I eventually chose to publicise this because the Sun were about to
launch an attack on me concerning certain ‘internal FBU battles’ related
to finance. Whilst some other members still don’t quite understand why I
do it a lot of members think it’s a welcome change to see a general
secretary not taking the full amount.
Firefighters give thumbs down to regional control centres
ONLY 3% of fire service personnel surveyed support government plans
to shut emergency fire controls and move to a regional-only service
according to a new poll.
Firefighters, officers, managers and control staff do not believe the
new controls will improve either firefighter safety or the response to
incidents.
The poll asked three key questions about the plans to close every
fire brigade’s emergency fire control and move to regional control
rooms.
Asked if they thought regional control rooms would improve
firefighters’ safety, 95% said NO and only 2% said YES.
When further asked if they believed such a move will improve fire
service response to incidents, 95% said NO and 3% said YES.
And finally, when asked if they thought the government should proceed
with its plan to move to regional controls, 94% said NO.
Matt Wrack said:
"The poll findings are a body blow for these plans. In some
regions you could not fill a phonebox with those who support them."Those who really know the fire service and what these
proposals mean have given them a massive thumbs down. Those who will
have to deal with the consequences of these proposals clearly have
little confidence in them."
