So what will re affiliation to Labour mean for the FBU?

[velbert]

FBU in historic affiliation to Labour



Today, the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) has made a historic move as the first trade union to re-affiliate to the Labour Party more than a decade after it withdrew its support.

Union delegates voted for the FBU to support the Labour Party, reinvigorated after the election of Jeremy Corbyn as leader, at a special conference in Blackpool.

The FBU was one of the first trade unions to declare support for Corbyn’s leadership campaign. The union’s executive council voted to recommend re-affiliation after his landslide election victory in September. Corbyn and shadow chancellor John McDonnell co-founded the unions’ parliamentary group after the union disaffiliated from Labour in 2004 after a dispute over pay and conditions under the Blair government.

Matt Wrack, FBU general secretary, said: “Firefighters recognise that the Labour party has changed for the better since the election of Jeremy Corbyn, who has given our members and supporters hope that we can shift the political debate in favour of working people. We have a Labour Party leader and shadow chancellor who are vehemently opposed to austerity, who are ready to fight for a fair alternative that doesn’t attack the living standards, livelihoods and the hard won rights of working people.

“Since the Tories came to power, initially in coalition with the Liberal Democrats, 7,000 firefighter jobs have been cut and more than 40 fire stations have closed, with almost 145 fire engines pulled from service up to 2013 alone. Last week, the government’s own figures showed we have the longest 999 response times to fires for 20 years. Firefighters, like millions of others, have had their pensions attacked and their living standards driven down by George Osborne’s pay freeze.

“The best chance we have of halting the now critical cuts to fire and rescue services and to fight for better conditions for firefighters and all working people is to defeat the cuts agenda outright and work to elect an anti-austerity party to government.”

The FBU has taken account of differences in the political situation across the UK and will not use political fund money from Scotland or Northern Ireland to support affiliation.

http://www.fbu.org.uk/news/2015/11/fbu-in-historic-affiliation-to-labour/

[bakes]

It will be all three velbert. The now self entrenched leadership will continue as usual, members will withdraw from the political levy and most worrying of all, a mass resignation of members will see this proud union reduced to a workforce divided.
Re affiliation has given the tories a victory not even they could have dreamed of. A divided depleted public sector workforce.

:C

[SoCo]

[Stressed]

Don't forget that soon membership subs will NOT be taken from our wages, each FBU member will have to set up a DD.

[zoot]

Don't forget that soon membership subs will NOT be taken from our wages, each FBU member will have to set up a DD.

Which means that you wont even have to contact payroll to tell them to cancel your subscription.....

[bakes]

Looks like youre saving £30 a month plus the price of a fone call zoot, coupled with the time and effort to set up a direct debit.
REEEESUUULTTTTT

:C

[josephine]

Karaoke in Blackpool tonight.

[MEDIA=youtube]Ww4v2cP-MDo[/MEDIA]

[josephine]

Meanwhile in Bonny there's going to be a party.

[MEDIA=youtube]84vwij4aWU0[/MEDIA]

[bill.advanced]

When I retired from the fire service I had a meeting with the firemaster. To be honest I expected the usual cup of coffee thanks for your service and goodbye.
Well it did not turn out that way. I spent all afternoon in his company over 3 hours, and we hardly talked about the fire service. We talked about our lives, or childhoods, and what the future held, amongst other things.
I asked him what was the most important thing for him in running the then Strathclyde fire service. His answer was simple, that he could relate to how his workforce felt on issues both about how he ran the brigade, but more importantly how they viewed the forthcoming changes that he knew where imminent throughout the uk fire service at the time. For him not losing contact with the views and outlooks of his men was paramount.
He knew that many of the changes were outwith his control, but none the less he took a great interest in what his men thought, and felt of what was ongoing, and current at the time.

Well possibly Matt Wrack could take a leaf out of his book, because it seems that he and his EC have clearly lost touch with the feelings of their hard pressed members. What surprises me more though is that others at the conference voted for this affiliation. It is my beleif that Jeremy Corbyn won't see 2017 as labour leader, Andy Birnam or another more right wing MP will replace him soon. The FBU will find itself affiliated to a party similar to that which shafted them in 2002.

This affiliation is ill thought out, and unnecessary, it will damage moral within the FBU and could lead to its demise.

[Nightstaffer]

I am a bit puzzled here
Scotland has less than 10% pro rata of the total population of the UK
Hardly anyone in Scotland votes Labour
So us Socialists in England are stuck with a Tory Govt
Now these quasi tories are making most noise about reaffiliation
The FBU want to help take the fight to the Tories
That is clear
So we have the Hibs, Caledonians, the Scots , and the Picts, and assorted other minorities deciding who gets to run England
And when English trade unionists try to unite they Become most vociferous


They don't recognise Labour North of the border so why have a say in what goes on in Kingston upon Thames and the House that sits on the Thames.

Too few people with too much to say
The FBU in Scotland is a Region of the FBU not a separate national entity

Non bowlers off the green please