The government wants firefighters and other public sector workers to pay more, work longer and still get less for our pensions. The FBU says this is daylight robbery.
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Cumbria’s fire crews have called for a re-think of moves to axe Cumbria’s 999 fire control and farm the work out to Cheshire. The union says the plans are ill-thought out, a bad deal for council tax payers and could increase risk to the public and local fire crews. Continue reading
Putting up firefighter pension contributions could cost the taxpayer £250 million over the next three years warns a new independent actuaries report commissioned by the Fire Brigades Union. One in four firefighters say they will consider leaving the scheme if their already high contribution rates go up further. Continue reading
FBU regional secretary Ricky Matthews said: “Those who work in Buckinghamshire fire service command and control centre have been told their work is to be outsourced to Cambridgeshire with the loss of 20 posts. It is very unhelpful that this was communicated to many of them by letters delivered to their homes by taxi. Continue reading
The Fire Brigades Union Scotland’s current international humanitarian project is to deliver fire and rescue equipment to the Nablus Fire Dept. The kit and equipment will be taken on two fire appliances from Dundee to Nablus through Israel.
The fire engines, a Volvo WTL and Volvo FST, equipment and kit include:
20 Sabre Centurion breathing apparatus, 150 sets of Bristol fire kit, 80 Pacific fire helmets, 80 pairs of leather fire boots, 100 pairs of fire gauntlets. Continue reading
Matt Wrack, FBU general secretary said: “As part of our campaign to defend firefighter pensions the union has been building up solid arguments and evidence so that we can put forward a challenge to the case put by government against us. It is therefore with great pleasure that I commend this independent report to you. The authors, Tony Cutler and Barbara Waine, have already written some excellent papers on pensions – most recently on the Hutton report. Continue reading
The Fire Brigades Union has dismissed John Prescott’s remarks on Radio 4 this morning, blaming firefighters and civil servants for the failure of the FiReControl project. Matt Wrack, FBU general secretary said: “Only a minister who doesn’t know what’s going on blames others. Prescott has no excuse. He was told by the FBU, among others. He was clearly not doing his job properly. Continue reading
The Fire Brigades Union in Essex have called for third party assistance to try and break the deadlock in the long-running dispute over frontline cuts after Essex fire chiefs walked away from talks. The FBU say it is their measured response to the inflammatory and insulting remarks made by senior managers last week. Continue reading
The Fire Brigades Union has warned that the lessons of the FiReControl project have not been learned and the same mistakes are being repeated on a local level by the current government. The union welcomed the Public Accounts Committee report on the failure of the FiReControl project, but warned that key lessons are still to be learned. Continue reading
The Fire Brigades Union (FBU) has criticised a report by the London Fire Brigade which claimed that it had enough resources to cope during last month’s riots. The report, drawn up by service bosses, showed that firefighters attended over 800 fires between 6-10 August, and that sufficient staff and fire engines were available to deal with the disturbances.
But union leaders said the report attempted to hide the real story and that matters went beyond breaking point. Continue reading
