Ben Selby, FBU executive council member for the East Midlands, has vowed to protect members and the fire and rescue service from government attacks after being elected today as the FBU's next vice president.
Ben has served as a firefighter in Lincolnshire for 18 years and was elected to the executive council two years ago having previously served as brigade chair, brigade secretary, regional vice chair and regional secretary.
Current vice president Andy Noble will retire in June.
On being elected, Ben said:
"It’s a great honour to be elected as the next Vice president of our great union. Branches across every one of our 12 regions nominated me, something I won’t forget. Thank you so much.
It appears that our national employers have given up the defence of the National Joint Council. Attacks on our terms and conditions are coming very soon, pushed by a number of Chief Officers and by central government. The FBU has a proud history of fighting to protect and improve our conditions. We will need to do that again.
The pandemic has highlighted the lack of resilience across the UKFRS, with over 11,000 firefighters jobs lost since 2010. Nevertheless, FBU members have gone beyond their duties to perform a multitude of additional activities to assist their communities in the face of the coronavirus: we should be very proud of that.
Our union has and shall continue to unapologetically campaign to see greater equality, not only in our sector, but wider across society. There is nothing complicated about ‘equality’, and our union must always stand shoulder to shoulder against anything which divides working people.
I’m privileged to have been elected as the next Vice President but I’m clear that our job now is unite and build a campaign to ensure the fire service and our conditions are protected and improved upon, and to ensure there is a professional fire service for future generations."
