Darrall Cozens, President of the Coventry TUC (personal capacity) reports on the latest strike action by members of the FBU, and analysis the issues at stake in this long-running dispute over firefighters’ pensions.
Darrall Cozens, President of the Coventry TUC (personal capacity) reports on the latest strike action by members of the FBU, and analysis the issues at stake in this long-running dispute over firefighters’ pensions.
At 7am this morning (25th February 2015) FBU members in Coventry joined colleagues from around the country in a 24-hour strike, the 51st period of industrial action in the past 18 months after having made very little progress in pension talks over the past three-and-a-half years.
Worthless guarantees from government
It had been thought that some resolution to the dispute was in sight when MPs in Parliament voted through legislation on firefighters’ pensions after the fire minister, Penny Morduant, had given guarantees that any firefighter who failed a fitness test through no fault of their own would be redeployed or get a full, unreduced pension. This statement was subsequently confirmed by the Communities and Local Government Secretary, Eric Pickles.
The guarantees proved to be worthless. When the FBU contacted all fire authorities to see if they would honour the guarantees, the reply was negative. One authority, the London Fire Brigade, got legal advice that said they could not honour the guarantees. It is for this reason that the FBU had told the fire minister before she gave the guarantees that changes in regulations would be needed. When the guarantees were given in Parliament, they obviously influenced the way the MPs voted through the legislation. Morduant’s promises had no validity and therefore, as FBU General Secretary Matt Wrack states, she misled the firefighters and Parliament.
The FBU has tried to arrange a meeting with Morduant to try and get some answers as to why the guarantees proved to be worthless, but they have not had any response. So the dispute continues as one of the main contentious issues, the potential sacking of a firefighter aged 55 and over on capability grounds, and with a consequential reduced pension, has not been resolved.
But the dispute is only in England, as in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland considerable progress has been made in resolving the dispute with improved offers, lower retirement ages or simply negotiations are ongoing.
Which way forward?
Where does the FBU go from here? They must obviously keep trying to obtain a negotiated settlement, but any progress in that area would seem to depend on what leverage can be put on fire minister Morduant to meet with the FBU. At the moment there are no signs of this happening.
The minimum that the FBU could do would be to actively take their message to fellow trade unionists and the public at large. There are mountains of sympathy and latent support for firefighters amongst the population at large given the dangerous job that they do. This must be tapped into. Rallies in city centres with flags, leaflets and rattling tins would boost morale to even greater heights and enthuse FBU members to keep fighting. Fellow trade unionists from Trade Union Councils would turn out to support the FBU.
Pressure must also be put on the Labour Party to publicly declare its support for firefighters and to promise that if elected in May, it will negotiate a settlement with the FBU.
Finally, and it is worth repeating, these attacks on the pension rights, jobs, terms and conditions of public sector workers such as firefighters will continue as a crisis-ridden capitalist system seeks to make working class people pay for a crisis they did not cause.
The iniquities of the system were shown a few days ago when it was revealed that Stuart Gulliver, the CEO of the Swiss arm of HSBC, a bank that is mired in scandal with tax evasion and avoidance advice being given to its rich clients, as well as the laundering of drug and arms smuggling money, took home £7.6m in pay and bonuses last year.
The FBU has led the way on issues like this. It was Matt Wrack who moved the motion at the 2012 TUC Congress, a motion that was approved by Congress, to take into public ownership banking and finance.
That is the way forward. Fight to defend pension rights; but also fight to change society starting with nationalisation under democratic control of banking and finance.
