July saw the hottest temperature ever recorded in the UK and, as a result, a huge strain on all members who worked tirelessly dealing with major incidents across much of the country.
Heatwave
The FBU has warned for years that the impact of climate change is and will be acutely felt by the fire and rescue service. These warnings have fallen on deaf ears.
This is despite the fact that the risks arising from heatwaves (and drought) have been on the government’s National Risk Register since 2008 and the risk and impact of wildfires was added as a “newly assessed risk” in 2013. Even so, we should not be too hard on the government. It has only had nine years to resource fire and rescue services properly to deal with the risk!
Resources
Instead of putting in place measures to improve public safety, reduce environmental damage and protect businesses and homes, the government has had more pressing matters to pursue in that time: immoral and unsuccessful legal fights to defend discriminatory attacks on firefighters’ pensions, extending the responsibilities of the slash-and-burn chief inspector of police services (now thankfully retired), to cover the fire and rescue services in England, and an inspection and reporting regime created to match his outlook and objectives are some examples.
This summer we have seen fire and rescue services where the heatwave hit hardest go into meltdown (sorry!) with desperate calls for firefighters to report for additional shifts – the result of the cuts in thousands of jobs over past decades – 11,500 since 2010 alone. It time to stop the cuts and then rebuild the size of the sector.
White Paper
As reported in this issue of Firefighter, the FBU has submitted its response to the Westminster government’s fire service White Paper. The union will be campaigning relentlessly against this foolhardy and ill-conceived policy adventure. I urge members to actively engage with that campaigning.
Tory party leadership
Still, what feels like the trend of “another year, another fire minister at Westminster” has continued with the resignation of Lord Greenhalgh and the appointment of Sarah Dines to that office. One upside of the gangster turf-war, aka Tory party leadership battle, has been the well-publicised U-turn on the flagged regional public sector pay issue. The furore that followed brought into focus the economic benefits of national sector-based pay bargaining.
HMICFRS
FBU national officials recently met with Andy Cooke, the newly-appointed HM Chief Inspector of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services, and the lead HM Inspector for Fire and Rescue Services, Roy Wilsher. In what was without doubt a pleasant meeting it is fair to say that we came away with a raised level of optimism. The proof of the pudding, as with all things, is in the eating.
Pay
June and July saw extensive consultation with branches across the UK on the derisory 2% pay proposal from the employers. Reflecting the outcome of that consultation, the executive council met and voted to reject the ‘offer’. This has been conveyed to the national employers.
While we await their response, the union is taking the necessary steps to prepare for strike action should it be required. Members can assist this work by ensuring that the details we hold for you on our membership database are up to date. We use this information to ballot members. It’s a small, quick step.
If you haven’t done so yet, please speak to your local representatives if you don’t know how to update the details: fbu.org.uk/regions-nations
Picket lines
Over the summer, as at the ports affected by the P&O sacking-by-video message in March, FBU officials and some members have been joining RMT picket lines across the UK. Those strikes, now supplemented by strikes by members of other unions in the transport sector will be continuing, we expect, for some while.
Members are asked to drop in to picket lines in their area to meet the strikers and offer solidarity. A half-hour on the picket line by FBU members will go a long way to boost the morale of our brothers and sisters as they fight to maintain their jobs and standard of living.
Cuba
As this issue of Firefighter was going to press, members will have heard the devastating news that one firefighter is dead and 16 are missing as a result of firefighting operations at the oil tanker depot in Matanzas, Cuba.
I have written to Ulises Guilarte de Nacimiento, General Secretary of the Central de Trabajadores de Cuba (CTC) union on behalf of FBU members and officials to offer our support and solidarity
