Dean Mills: EC Member

Elected in December 2004 as the regional EC member after serving as the Regional Secretary since 1995.

Married with three children Dean serves in Bucks Fire & Rescue Service and took on his first union role as Branch Secretary in 1984 moving on to Branch Chair, Brigade Health and Safety Rep and then Brigade Secretary. Dean was the regional delegate to South East Region TUC and sat on their Education Advisory Committee. Chair of the regional Fairness at Work Committee and actively campaigning for all members to speak up and out many officials now in place are grateful for the assistance they received when taking up posts. He also represented our region at the Labour Party and many will have met Dean on branches and at conferences and when he has tutored at regional schools. Some of you will have also met him during discipline matters which required resolving either informally or at hearings.

In the pay campaign Dean produced the regional literature which was widely used in our brigades and across the country by many other regions. The encouragement to share ideas is paying dividends for the region.

Since joining the EC this year Dean has also sat on EC sub Committees including IRMP’s,
the Accident and Injury Fund, the National Framework Document Response, the Representation Appeals Committee, the Discipline Sub Committee and is a member of the Strategy Advisory Group.

He also represented the FBU as one of the negotiating team to bring in the new discipline and grievance procedures which were a sticking point to ending the dispute. The understanding of the new procedures and codes will benefit all members in the months and years to come especially if in any dispute on the interpretation of them.

For some time now Dean has been developing the Best Practice Committee to ensure officials work closer together and more effectively across boundaries caused by county lines and traditional methods of working. A keen promoter of inter-working this is already paying off in the region with officials in one brigade leading on an issue to remove the constant re-invention of solutions to common difficulties. This is also reflected in the long term planning for the region with education needs and schools already identified for 2005 to 2008.

Members can read the Members Update section to see what we have been doing in the region and what other ideas Dean has planned for the future.

A keen QPR supporter Dean is interested in all sports, especially boxing and martial arts. His other interests are employment law, new technology, education and training methods, politics and scuba diving.