Wanna Argument?
The Firefighters' Dispute: Fanning the Flames?
How long did the dispute last?
April 2002:
- The firefighters' main union, the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) tabled a pay claim that would take salaries from £21,500 to £30,000.
- By May 2002, they were threatening the first national fire strike for 25 years.
October 2002:
- After a 9:1 vote, the FBU called for a series of 48 hour and 8 day strikes.
- Following talks with their employers, the first two 48 hour stoppages were called off.
November 2002:
- The first of the 8 day strikes was postponed. A new 48 hour strike was called instead. This walk-out began on November 13th.
- After many bitter exchanges between the Government and the FBU, the second strike begins.
December 2002:
- The FBU calls off another planned 8 day strike in order to start talks with their local authority employers at ACAS. The Advisory Conciliation and Arbitration Service)
- Publication of the Bain Report - a three month independent review of the Fire Service. Rejected by the FBU.
April 2003:
- A revised pay offer of a 16% increase over three years is offered, as long as changes to working practices are agreed.
- FBU rejects latest offer.
- Professor Frank Burchill presents a new plan to resolve the dispute. Burchill, an ACAS mediator for 28 years argued that only minor changes were needed to earlier proposals in order to achieve a settlement.
- But the plan appears doomed as it seems to block modernisation required by the Bain Report and by employers.
June 2003
- Compromise 16% deal tied to some changes in working practices accepted by a 3:1 majority of the UK's 58 Fire Brigades.
- Firefighters' pay to rise to £25,000 by July 2004.
What's this ACAS stuff then. Who are they?
The Advisory Conciliation and Arbitration Service (ACAS)was set up in 1974. It is a public body funded by taxpayers. Its staff are employment relations experts, whose main aim is to prevent and resolve problems in the workplace. ACAS were called in when negotiations between the FBU and the firefighters' employers (the National Joint Council for Local Authorities' Fire Brigades) broke down without agreement.
The timeline above shows how 'on/off' it has been. It has not though been without controversy or bitterness. It also bears the hallmarks of a classic industrial dispute: uncertainty over precisely what the battle is all about.