UPDATE ON PENSIONS - LFB FBU We have received a number of enquiries from members seeking an update on the current situation regarding pensions. As you will be aware, FBU leaders met again with the fire minister, Penny Mordaunt, last week. The union’s executive council convened yesterday (Monday) to receive a full report of this meeting and will be in session for most of this week. Members will also recall that, on 22 August, Miss Mordaunt stated publicly that she was ‘considering a number of issues’ and that her work would conclude the week commencing 8 September. She also argued that the union should not call further strikes as this, in her view, would compromise the work she was undertaking, as well as inhibiting dialogue and any potential for her to make a revised offer. The executive council subsequently refrained from announcing further strike action, deciding instead to take a leap of faith in the minister’s words. As we have already reported, the London regional committee had deep misgivings about this strategy. Three years of interminable meetings with ministers have already shown us that it will take more than just meetings to force the government to make serious concessions on the several aspects of the trade dispute that remain unresolved. We also remember the failed strategy employed during the pay strikes of 2002-03 when the FBU leadership regularly abandoned strike action for promises of meetings with ministers. As it turned out, those promises of meetings were just a ploy by the government and employers to string us along and undermine our campaign, rather than being used as an opportunity to make improved offers. This week will, therefore, be a pivotal one in our pensions dispute. Given the minister’s words of 22 August, FBU members are entitled to expect that she and her officials have spent the last four weeks revising, clarifying, number-crunching and generally working hard to come up with a fresh offer that has the potential to settle our dispute. Not a ‘part-offer’ covering only one or two of the union’s demands. Not a ‘work in progress’. Not promises of further meetings. But a clear, revised and improved offer. If an acceptable offer is received, then the executive council’s leap of faith will be proved to have been justified. However, in the absence of an acceptable revised offer, those who argued that we were being strung along and that we should not have abandoned strike action simply for promises of meetings with the minister would be vindicated. In such circumstances, we believe it would be incumbent on the executive council, first, to call fresh strikes immediately and, second, to revise its future strategy in relation to refusing to call strikes for promises of meetings. Members will be kept informed of developments. Yours in unity LONDON FBU
Posted on: Tue, 16 Sep 2014 09:54:42 +0000