Latest editorial
FBU president Ian Murray at the FBU conference, May 22, 2024
[Mark Thomas / FBU]
FIRE Brigades Union (FBU) president Ian Murray vowed today to hold Labour’s feet to the fire to ensure that it scraps the Tories’ draconian minimum service levels legislation.
Giving his opening address at the union’s annual conference in Blackpool, he noted that he had been going to such meetings for about 20 years.
“And I’ve seen, year after year, resolutions, policy statements that clearly demonstrate that the fire and rescue service has been decimated, fragmented, downgraded, with little or no investment in its infrastructure,” Mr Murray said.
It is only trade union power at work that will materially improve the lot of working people as a class but without sector-wide collective bargaining and a right to take sympathetic strike action, we are hamstrung in the fight to tilt back the balance of power, argues ADRIAN WEIR
The FBU is demanding 52 weeks of full pay for women firefighters, highlighting the unique health risks they face — and the continuing need to recruit and retain more women if policies like this are still not in place, writes SEONA HART
