To: ALL MEMBERS SOUTHERN REGION

From: DEAN MILLS

MEMBERS UPDATE: 10th NOVEMBER 2002

If we were to judge by the press coverage over the last two days one would be tempted to believe our dispute over pay is all over and has been settled. It is settled only when the membership agree that they are happy with any outcome.

Some members have been asked what they feel is an acceptable level of pay. Those who have done so may as well ask every single member of the Fire Service what an acceptable level of pay is; what the pension should be, and how many hours a week our working week should be cut by. There are as many acceptable solutions as there are members of the FBU because we all have differing views on what we should be paid and what we are worth.

I have still not read anywhere that we are not worth £30,000 a year with any argument to substantiate it. So our position must remain that we ARE worth it. Who has suddenly decided that £8:50 an hour is too much? Whoever says so will not only be selling us short, they will not be talking for our members who are most certainly worth it no matter if they are Full or Part Time Firefighters, or Control Staff.

Some sections of the public and press continue to use the term ‘militant’ for Firefighters and FBU Officials. I have been an official for 19 of the 20 years I have been a Firefighter and have met all our senior officials on hundreds of occasions. I know far more militants outside the fire service then there ever were or are inside it and those who are deemed ‘militant’ are not even senior officials.

Perhaps we should also term ‘militant’ the magistrates court staff who are preparing to go on strike for the first time in 800 years.

500 of them in the West Midlands are expected to take official strike action tomorrow the first since the courts were set up by Richard I in 1195.

Members of AMO, the union for magistrates courts' staff, are angry at the results of a pay ‘harmonisation’ scheme which leaves about a quarter of workers facing wage cuts. So would it be fair to call those who strike and those who lead them ‘militant’?

If this is the right use of the word simply for standing up for a fair rate of pay or for conditions then I guess every Firefighter and Control operator who opposed station closures and appliances cuts must also be ‘militant’

I wonder what the response would be if every time someone said workers should accept they have to ‘modernise’ ‘ harmonise’ or ‘downsize’ etc we termed those who suggest it fascist. It is not the proper use of the term any more than constantly calling FBU officials ‘militant’ is the proper use of that particular term either.

Picketing with Firefighters
BY GORDON HONEYCOMBE
AUTHOR OF ‘RED WATCH’

As union heroes go, I was among the most unlikely. When firefighters announced plans for a national strike in November 1977, I was a senior newsreader with ITN, presenting early evening and weekend bulletins and enjoying some rare public plaudits after topping a poll of most popular broadcasters. A week later, after expressing public support for the firemen’s cause, I was out on a picket line and out of a job.

On the first few days of the strike, morale among the firefighters was perilously low, and mine was little better. As we gathered around braziers on a freezing Wednesday morning outside a West London fire station, the strikers’ nerves were palpable. Standing on a picket line ran against all their natural instincts as men of energy and action, and they worried deeply about the public perception that they were recklessly shirking the most important of duties.

The experience was alien to me too. I had become something of a reluctant hero for the firefighters after writing a newspaper article championing their cause. I believed passionately that they were undervalued and underpaid. I also felt that my opinion was worth hearing, having spent six months observing their work at close quarters while writing Red Watch, my account of a tragic fire in Maida Vale.

The article, which I had written some weeks earlier, was published on November 14, the first day of the strike. Having presented the Sunday night news the day before, I was at home when David Nicholas, the newly appointed editor at ITN, called me to discuss the matter. I was told that the article had damaged ITN’s impartiality, and I would be suspended from newsreading duties for the duration of the strike. An extra caveat was given: that I gave no further public comment on the firemen’s cause.

I considered my response for 24 hours. I had already given notice of my intention to leave ITN after Christmas, but I was keen to stay the distance. To be gagged throughout the strike, however, was too much to endure. I felt I had to speak out. The following day I handed in my resignation, and by the Wednesday — in a week that had brought its fair share of surprises — I was out on a picket line.

The atmosphere was, as could be expected, of high emotion. During the week Merlyn Rees, the Home Secretary, had attacked the Firefighters for endangering the lives of the public. The thought hurt them, and seemed to have dented their resolve.

It was only on arriving at the station of Red Watch, Paddington — where I hoped to offer support to Firefighters and old friends — that I realised the impact of my article. As one of the few public proclamations of support for the strike, it had been essential reading on the picket line. Headlines about my split from ITN had also been followed closely. Such was the anger at my perceived dismissal that one fire brigade had refused to speak to an ITN crew. That afternoon I called the Fire Brigades Union to clarify that the decision to leave had been my own.

The union, then led by its general secretary Terry Parry, invited me to address other strikers around the country who might benefit from the support of a public figure. The following weeks I spoke at union meetings and on picket lines in Cambridge, Newcastle, Gwent, Leeds and Birmingham. I was used to public speaking — after 12 years as a television presenter and as a former member of the Royal Shakespeare Company — but the circumstances were always somewhat daunting. As unofficial spokesman for their cause, I found myself greeted as a hero. I spoke from platforms, in halls, by braziers, to crowds of strikers who came for vindication of their action.

In six months researching Red Watch I had observed the depth of their courage, whether facing billowing fires or raging floodwaters, and I offered my own anecdotal evidence of their heroism.

The mood was often reflective, sometimes combative, but palpably more confident as the weeks went by. The firefighters were determined to stick out the strike and outlast the Government’s intransigence, whatever it might take. After nine weeks, in January 1978, their resilience finally won through.

Main functions of the FBU picket organisers

1) Pickets understand the law and that the picketing is conducted peacefully and regard is had for the law

2) Anyone crossing the picket line should be recorded in the activity log for safety reasons as they may well be working alone.

3) Number of pickets at any entrance to, or exit from, a place of work is not so great as to cause difficulties on the picket line

4) Close contact with brigade officials, is established and maintained;

5) Welfare considerations and the ability of members to maintain the picket in all weathers and conditions is considered.

6) Arrange a rota for the picketing which will include the watch who would be on duty that day/night. For retained stations a rota will be needed arranged at a local level.

7) A log of who was on Picket duty must be maintained at each picket line.

8) An activity log should be kept of, any attendance by the police public etc. It is important that this is kept up to date as it will be useful to us in event of any challenge to our lawful picket.

9) Pickets are clearly identified

10) Ensure ‘Official Picket’ signs are clearly displayed.

11) Ensure any massages, offers of support are recorded and forwarded to the branch and brigade officials.

12) A branch report is to be prepared twice a week on Wednesday and Saturday evening which will be circulated with every other branch report.

13) Personal difficulties are to be reported to brigade officials immediately.

14) Attendance at any picket by the press is to be dealt with by the appointed person from the branch.

What are we as Firefighters worth?

Are we worth £8:50 an hour as independent research suggests or are we only worth the additional £2.35 a day the government offer of 4% amounts to before tax, pension, and national insurance is stopped?

We cannot measure someone’s worth only in monetary terms. I do not happen to think that a CEO of a company should in fact earn in a year what the entire compliment of Firefighters in my brigade earn in a whole year. Yet it happens. How can one person earn what the entire compliment of Firefighters does in a year? So to measure worth in monetary terms might not be a fair criteria by which to measure worth.

Is it possible to measure ‘’worth’ by what we provide society? Well we could argue that we provide society with a safe environment in which they can operate. This argument could also apply to other sections of the ‘protective’ sector of the APT job classification. Indeed it does. So we are not unique by that criteria although a narrowing of that to peacetime and lawful operating bounds would narrow it down to us with some reduced influence for the others in our APT band.

Could we measure ‘worth’ in some other way? We could measure it as time or situation specific. If for example we lose a wallet or handbag or it is stolen we would then say in that situation the police officer has more ‘worth’ at that particular time than say a sailor. The problem with that for pay purposes is do you only pay them while they are doing the actual job of their worth at any given time. It would lead to a situation where we have multiple pay rates depending on what was being done at any given time. I don’t think the position where Firefighters had to chose between an RTA persons trapped at one pay rate and a chimney fire paying another would work!

Perhaps a measure of ‘worth’ is how much you are missed when you are not there.

If you are reading this at home or somewhere warm and safe you might be tempted to put a particular value on the ‘worth’ of a Firefighter. As you do remember that while you are in your safe environment others may not be.

Somewhere right now in the UK a Firefighter is dealing with a Road Traffic Accident. If you were the person trapped in that car, impaled on metal and bleeding to death, the medical team may be able to stabilise you. They may keep you alive for a while. They wont get you to hospital for treatment if you cannot be cut free. How much is a firefighters skill worth to you then?

If you are stood outside your home and safe, and one of your family is inside needing rescuing from the fire, what is the worth you then attach to a firefighter. More than when you started reading this section 3 minutes ago?

People seem to believe that we wait around for emergency calls all day and night. When do they think we train for them then? I have never stopped training and developing new skills in 20 years. That’s why we can free someone today faster than we did 10 years ago from a car crash.

A Firefighters worth will hit home most forcefully when we are not there.

We do not want to be forced into taking action to ensure we receive a pay which is fair and reflects the job we do today. If you like, what our worth is. As you read this safe and inside remember who it is who will be called on to rescue you or your family no matter what the situation.

Wife in train derailment, husband stuck in machinery, chemical spill at work, son slipped through ice, daughter in car crash; mums house struck by fallen tree and dad fallen from ladder through greenhouse roof and bleeding from deep cuts. You trapped tomorrow going to work. Ponder this as you consider what we are really worth and the training dedication and skills we develop every day.

Dean Mills
Regional Secretary

Thank you for taking the time to read this. If you have any queries or want any more information please contact me on:

Mob: 07956 502585

Regional Office: 01494 513034

email:deanmills@hotmail.com