With only the third ever national fire service strike in prospect, Will Stone talks to FBU members involved in previous disputes
November marked the 20th anniversary of the start of a nationwide strike by more than 50,000 firefighters over pay. It was a bitter dispute lasting more than six months.
Disgruntled firefighters fed up with poverty pay, which had been declining in value for years, wanted a 40% increase to take the average salary up to £30,000 a year.
But they were offered an insulting 4% raise, which was promptly rejected, before the New Labour government under Tony Blair – more concerned with funding wars in Iraq and Afghanistan than paying firefighters a proper wage – commissioned an “independent” review into the fire service in a last ditch attempt to prevent looming strikes.
‘TOTAL SHAM’
The resulting Bain Inquiry recommended firefighters be given an 11% pay rise in exchange for major changes to their working practices, including more flexible shift patterns and fewer officers on night duty, leaving members “absolutely disgusted” and labelling the review a “total sham”.
Linda Smith, a former London firefighter who was on the regional executive during the strike, was heavily involved in the run up to the campaign, vote and ballot.
She said: “We felt we were massively underpaid and the solidarity was strong and totally solid.
“Most stations were on the picket line. North Kensington had a caravan cut in half with a disco ball inside it.”
And despite the slew of right-wing media smear stories about striking firefighters, with Blair’s channelling of Thatcher in his determination to make the dispute his very own miners’ strike by going to war with the union, most of the public saw through the propaganda and supported the strikers.
“When we engaged with the public we got widespread support, because they know the service helps save lives,” Linda says.
“I was on the picket line in Islington and three eight-year-old boys came up and gave me about 75p in change for the strike fund.
“One said: ‘This is for you, this is our pocket money. We’re giving it to you because you saved my sister who would have died.’ It broke my heart, but there were loads of stories like that. Little old ladies tried to open their purses, but we wouldn’t let them.”
When we engaged the public we got support … they know the service saves lives
Dawn Forrest, who has worked at Johnstone control in Scotland for 30 years, remembers being swept away by the solidarity of the action.
She recalls: “It was like a big sort of family. There was a real feeling of being part of something and supported by people around you.
“And there was a lot of support from the public. A local baker would turn up with pies, and there were children on the picket line.”
NATIONAL WALKOUT
At the time, the strike was only the second ever national walkout in the FBU’s history, the first being 25 years earlier in 1977 – again over the issue of pay.
Dawn says: “It felt fitting that I brought my partner’s son on the picket line as I joined my father, who was a striking firefighter in 1977, on the picket line as a child.
“It reminded me how important it is to teach the younger ones why we strike and how important it is to go out and fight.”
She said the hardest thing for control workers on strike was the thought of walking away from a life-saving call.
Her retired colleague Roddy McAllister, who also worked at Johnstone control, took part in both national pay strikes and doesn’t mince his words as he drew parallels between them.
He said: “The reason for going on strike was then as now – we were driven by poverty pay.
“We’re being robbed blind by these people – working longer and getting paid less.
“The bottom line is we have a conscience, and it takes a lot to walk away from a fire station or an emergency control room – you feel guilty.
“But it’s the responsibility of governments to pay us properly. The shaming thing about this was that in both strikes it was a Labour government in charge. Shower of bastards.”
Unsurprisingly, the 2002 dispute got so ugly that the FBU voted to disaffiliate from Labour in 2004 – severing an 80-year link, with the party losing valuable income and political support from the union.
Labour ministers had described striking firefighters as “criminally irresponsible”, even calling them “wreckers” and “fascists” – which the right-wing press were keen to lap up and exploit.
The military took charge of providing very basic cover during the strike with their ageing army fire engines, the Green Goddesses, with soldiers trained for just 10 days.
BASIC EQUIPMENT
Some of the vehicles were 50 years old, could only travel at 30 mph and contained very basic equipment with ladders that only reached a second floor window.
Many of them had even been rolled out a quarter of a century earlier during the ’77 strike.
Retired FBU member Tony Maguire, former Northern Ireland regional secretary based in Belfast, also served as a firefighter during both national strikes.
He said: “In 1977 firefighters pay had fallen way back, people with children were claiming supplementary state benefits.
“Where I lived in Northern Ireland a big number left firefighting to join the police or prison service.
“We knew something had to be done. That strike was a massive success. That pay formula reared my family.
“I never had to go and work on my days off. We were well paid for many years.”
The formula agreed after the 1977 strike ensured the wages of firefighters kept in line with those in the top 25% of male manual workers.
But Tony says that by the mid-90s pay had started to fall behind again, and there was always the threat that the pay formula would be taken away.
He believed that then FBU general secretary Andy Gilchrist was doing what he thought best when he launched the 2002 strike but that he walked into a trap.
Any advances that firefighters have got in living memory have had to be fought for.
The strike ended in 2003 after firefighters settled for a 16% pay increase, which many felt was not enough to make up for the compromises they agreed to.
These included changes to the Grey Book covering national pay and conditions in the service.
“It took a wee while to sink in just what exactly we lost,” Tony says. “Now the whole nature of the fire service has changed. We are looking at a future where pay has fallen far behind.”
WHAT WAS LOST
Roy Humphreys, who was in Suffolk fire service during the strike but now serves in Dagenham, also recognises what was lost following the strike.
“There were lots of strings attached with the deal,” he says. “We had to do a lot more community fire safety to the point where we were doing more of that than we were training.”
But he understands why firefighters accepted a 16% pay rise, even if it fell short of what they wanted.
“It was the winter of discontent because people were working but not earning enough,” he says. “Most firefighters were on benefits.”
Chris Kemp, Northamptonshire brigade secretary, says he has fond memories of how well the union stood strong together in 2002 but says the call to action needs to come again.
“The camaraderie and solidarity on the picket line was massive,” he says. “All my friends couldn’t understand how underpaid and undervalued we were as a service.
“But for the last 11 or 12 years we’ve not had a decent enough pay rise. Enough is enough.
“We’re prepared to go out on strike again but nobody wants to go out. We’re doing it to protect the future of the fire service.
“People leave the fire service after a few years, which was unheard of up until recently.
Inflation is going up so quick you can’t put a number on it. That’s where we are with it.
“There are a lot of similarities between 2002 and now – the feeling’s the same, we’re at the end of our tether.”
A key difference today is that back in 2002 the press had more power and there was no social media to challenge the lies that were being published about striking firefighters.
“Social media is a great tool to get the right info out and challenge the wrong info,” he adds.
THE TRUE STORY
Steven Gregory, an Aston branch rep in Birmingham, agrees: “Everyone’s got social media and can tell the true story.”
He is also more positive about the legacy of the 2002 strike: “I think every time you stand up for what you believe in it is successful.”
But history has a habit of repeating itself, with firefighters once again facing plummeting pay now that another two decades has passed.
Today’s firefighters have voted to reject an insulting 5% pay offer just as inflation soars above 11%, with FBU members now being balloted for strike action again.
If successful it would be the third national strike over pay in the union’s history.
Veteran Northern Ireland firefighter Tony added: “It seems that the wheel has almost turned and here we are another 20 years on facing the same problems. Wages and conditions have diminished right across the public sector.
“There’s a head of steam now with railway workers and NHS staff going on strike, and I think it would be remiss of any public sector union to not take advantage of this head of steam.
“Any advances that firefighters have got in living memory have had to be fought for. We need to harness that grassroots energy. If I was still there I would be well up for it.”
