The Fire Brigades Union (FBU) is a

trade union A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits ( ...

in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

for wholetime

firefighter A firefighter is a first responder and rescuer extensively trained in firefighting, primarily to extinguish hazardous fires that threaten life, property, and the environment as well as to rescue people and in some cases or jurisdictions also ...

s (including officers up to chief fire officer / firemaster),

retained firefighter In the United Kingdom and Ireland, a retained firefighter, also known as an RDS Firefighter or on-call firefighter, is a firefighter who does not work on a fire station full-time but is paid to spend long periods of time on call to respond to em ...

s and emergency control room staff.

History

The first recorded instance of trade union organisation of firefighters was when the

Municipal Employees' Association The Municipal Employees' Association was a trade union representing local government workers in the United Kingdom. The union was founded in 1888 as the London County Council Employees' Protection Association, to represent workers at the London ...

recruited several

London County Council London County Council (LCC) was the principal local government body for the County of London throughout its existence from 1889 to 1965, and the first London-wide general municipal authority to be directly elected. It covered the area today kno ...

firemen in early 1905, which by the end of the following year had grown to a branch of 500. After the entire branch had transferred to the rival

National Union of Corporation Workers The National Union of Public Employees (NUPE) was a British trade union which existed between 1908 and 1993. It represented public sector workers in local government, the Health Service, universities, and water authorities. History The union w ...

(NUCW), the branch grew to 1,100 of the 1,300 London firemen and to protect the then branch secretary from potential dismissal, sub-officer E. W. Southgate handed over branch secretaryship to Jim Bradley, a London park-keeper who had been nominated by the union's executive. Following the strike of police officers on 29 August 1918, Bradley organised a secret ballot of firemen on the issue of strike action over pay and conditions. After winning the right to a representative board for London firemen, the fire brigade branch of NUCW seceded from the union to join the Firemen's Trade Union, what had been a friendly society for around 200 firemen in private brigades led by George Gamble, with Bradley becoming assistant secretary. In 1930, the union changed its name to the Fire Brigades Union.

Second World War

The Air Raid Precautions Act (1937) contained provisions for recruiting a volunteer force of auxiliaries to supplement existing fire brigades, which were called up on 1 September 1939. The 95,000 called up (89,000 men, 6,000 women) formed the

Auxiliary Fire Service The Auxiliary Fire Service (AFS) was first formed in 1938 in Great Britain as part of the Civil Defence Service. Its role was to supplement the work of brigades at local level. The Auxiliary Fire Service and the local brigades were superseded ...

(AFS) far outnumbered the around 6,000 full-time regulars. AFS firefighters were on worse conditions, with regular firemen promoted to be their officers. The war emergency also saw the re-instatement of continuous duty service, which was dropped after a week in favour of a 112-hour week. The question of the AFS transformed the union, the incumbent leadership, headed by General Secretary

Percy Kingdom Percy Kingdom was a British firefighter and trade unionist. Kingdom worked as a seaman before becoming a firefighter. He joined the National Union of Corporation Workers, and when the firemen's branch split away to form the Firemen's Trade Union ...

, held that the AFS were dilutees and therefore should be marginalised. This view was challenged by John Horner and other young firemen and over the course of a protracted dispute which saw all the union's full-time officials resign, Horner was elected General Secretary. Horner then began organising auxiliaries, winning endorsement of this at the 1940 conference of the regular section of the union and saw the union's membership increase from 3,500 in 1939 to 66,500 in 1940. As a result of the London Blitz, the fire service was nationalised in 1941 by the powers of the Fire Services (Emergency Provisions) Bill.

200203 dispute

Led by its then General Secretary Andy Gilchrist, the union called a

strike Strike may refer to: People * Strike (surname) Physical confrontation or removal *Strike (attack), attack with an inanimate object or a part of the human body intended to cause harm *Airstrike, military strike by air forces on either a suspected ...

over pay and conditions in 2002, following an independent review of pay carried out by the same organisation that reviewed MPs' pay. The strike did not achieve its goals, and on 5 May 2005 a left wing candidate,

Matt Wrack Matthew D. Wrack (born 23 May 1962) is a British trade unionist and former firefighter. He was elected General Secretary of the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) in May 2005. Politics Wrack joined the Labour Party Young Socialists in Salford in 1978 ...

, defeated Gilchrist in the election for General Secretary, attaining 63.9% of the vote cast (12,883 votes) on a total turnout of about 40% of the membership.

2004 disaffiliation

The FBU disaffiliated from the Labour Party in 2004 due to the union's opposition of policies put in place by the then prime minister and party leader,

Tony Blair Sir Anthony Charles Lynton Blair (born 6 May 1953) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007. He previously served as Leader of th ...

201314 dispute

In August 2013, FBU members were balloted with 78% voting in favour of industrial action, in a dispute of pensions. The first strike took place on 25 September 2013 for four hours. Periods of industrial action have continued throughout 2013 and 2014, when the dispute escalated with a 96-hour strike called from 31 October to 4 November 2014.

2015 re-affiliation with Labour

In November 2015, the FBU re-affiliated with the Labour Party due to the union's backing of the party's new leader

Jeremy Corbyn Jeremy Bernard Corbyn (; born 26 May 1949) is a British politician who served as Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Labour Party from 2015 to 2020. On the political left of the Labour Party, Corbyn describes himself as a socialist ...

and his commitment to anti-austerity politics.

Election results

The union sponsored Labour Party candidates in several Parliamentary elections.

Officials

General secretaries

*19181922 George Gamble *19221929 Jim Bradley *19291939

*19391964 John Horner *19641980

Terry Parry Terence Parry CBE (24 December 1921 – 15 April 1982) was a British firefighter and trade unionist. Born in Coniston, Lancashire, Parry started work for the Blue Funnel Line at the age of fifteen. He served in the Royal Navy in the Pacific d ...

*19802000

Ken Cameron Ken Cameron (born 1946) is an Australian film and television director and writer. Cameron was born in Tenterfield, New South Wales, Australia and graduated from Sydney University with BA in 1968. He has won two AFI Awards for directing. Filmo ...

*20002005

Andy Gilchrist Andrew Charles Gilchrist (born 5 December 1960) is a British trade unionist and former firefighter who served as the General Secretary of the Fire Brigades Union from 2000 to 2005. Early life Gilchrist was born the son of Edward and Shirley Gi ...

*2005present

Assistant general secretaries

*1939 Harry Short *1946 Jack Grahl *1957 Tom Harris *1974 Dick Foggie *19822005 Mike Fordham *2005present Andy Dark

Presidents

*19391944 Gus Odlin *19441959 John Burns *19591964

*19641977 Enoch Humphries *19771979 Wilf Barber *19791986 Bill Deal *19861991 Stan Fitzsimmons *19911999 Ronnie Scott *19992002 Mick Harper *20022007 Ruth Winters *20072010 Mick Shaw *20112018 Alan McLean *2018present Ian Murray

References

External links

*
Catalogue of the FBU archives
held at the

Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick The Modern Records Centre (MRC) is the specialist archive service of the University of Warwick in Coventry, England, located adjacent to the Central Campus Library. It was established in October 1973 and holds the world's largest archive collecti ...

{{Irish Congress of Trade Unions Trade unions in the United Kingdom Firefighters associations 1918 establishments in the United Kingdom Trade unions established in 1918 Trade unions affiliated with the Labour Party (UK) Fire and rescue in the United Kingdom Trade unions based in London Trade unions affiliated with the Trades Union Congress