The FBU are in talks with the employers and the government. Both parties agree that a pay increase in needed but the 40% which the union is asking for is too much of a big claim. The government where playing their role behind the scenes of the negotiations, why is this?
The consequences of this tactic by the government caused the go ahead for the strikes, the government blocked a pay offer by the fire service employers which could have started the first step towards negotiations.
During the dispute the trade unions does have its advantages and disadvantages for the fire fighters. The advantage is that eventually the pay will be increased; so far the offer stands at 16%. The disadvantage however is the conditioning which has been set by the government, a threat of redundancies is on the table. In solving the original problem another one is created.
The fire brigade union has its weaknesses, government legislation. Much of the legislation that existed in the UK in the 1980’s and the early 1990’s was a result of the Conservative party with leadership from Margaret Thatcher. She and her followers are totally against Trade unions. Her view of Trade unions was they are disruptive, constantly causing industrial stoppages. Closed shops restricted the rights of employees not to belong to a union. All of he factors mentioned were making strong contributions in harming the efficiency of British industry. This soon changed when the Labour party came into power, their views about Trade unions were totally opposite to those of the conservative party. This is a promising factor for the FBU as the government will try their best to come up with a solution that is in favor of the FBU as well as the government.
It is good for the fire Brigade union that Labour is the political influence. Labour signed the European Social Chapter, it is believed it would create and improve the protection of employees in the workplace and encourage the partnership between unions and businesses. Form listening to the news and reading newspapers we can see that this is being put into practice. On numerous occasions both fire service employers, the government and unions have come together to try to resolve the problem.
Collective bargaining
Collective bargaining is one way of minimizing the conflict between the two parties. The conflict will be solves through negotiations from their representatives, as mentioned previously the Trade Union representative is Andy Gilchrist and the employers representative is John Ransford. It is essential that the fire brigade become a collective as one person voicing their opinion will have little or no effect as the fire brigade is such a large organization. There are in total 52,000 fire fighters have joined forces to overcome this battle.
The negotiation process is long and daunting, the agenda of their meetings follow the basic outline of the employees claim is voiced first and then the local authority employees later. Both parties support their arguments with facts. As mentioned previously many negotiations can take place. There have been several offers brought forward however the union is not 100% satisfied that they will meet their needs.
The Union are not happy with this process below are the offers that have been suggested by John Rasford.
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Offer 1 – on the 18th October 2002 an offer of 4% increase was laid down. The union rejected this offer. The union in retaliation set a 36 strike dates.
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Offer 2 – on the 11th November an additional 11% in total pay rise was on offer as well as the suggested new working conditions set by the George Bain Report. This to be rejected y the union.
From the independent review from the Bain report it stated that tension was running high. Bain reported that in order to supply he fire fighters with a 11% pay increase there would need to be a 5,500 job loss, the ban on overtime will need to be revoked and more training will need to be taken up.
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Offer 3 – on 22nd November on offer of 16% pay increase was put forward by the deputy prime minister John Prescott.
The ACAS (conciliation) services were called on to solve the problem.
The negotiation process so far to date has shown there is no official agreement. There is no value unless both parties accept what is on offer and make it work. Andy Ransford reported back the latest offer of 16% to the union to try to persuade them to accept it. The dispute is far from reaching an agreement from both sides, either side does not want to back down and lose face. Because of this long process it has caused many problems.
- the strikes are still ongoing causing the replacement of green goddesses that are not close to the equipment of fire engines
- It has caused demotivation of the fire fighters, they feel their demands are not being taken seriously.
The union decided to call of their strike after agreeing to talk to the conciliation of ACAS. Thos is good for the union as it is offering them some kind of hope. It allows the local authority employers and the union to negotiate amongst themselves without the influence of the government. The talks were mainly about and their ideas of modernization.
Has the ACAS helped the situation?
The fact that the strikes have been suspended to allow the talks to proceed is a sign that compromise is in the air. Which looks promising for both sides?
Industrial action
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A definition of industrial action is “… any temporary suspension of normal working arrangements which is initiated unilaterally by either employees (whether through their union or not) or management with the objective of exerting pressure in the determination of the employment relationship (particularly within the collective bargaining process).”
Source) Industrial Relations: Theory and Practice by M Salamon, published by Prentice Hall in 1998 page .395-397
Industrial action is well on its way, it has been taken up by the fire fighters, and the two types used by them are the overtime bans and strikes.
The overtime ban was used by the 52,000 fire fighters who are currently on strike, this method was used to demonstrate to the local authority management that they are determined to take further collective action if their demands are not met. Although the fire fighters see the overtime ban as an advantage for them it comes along with its disadvantage, they will simply have a loss of earnings.
All strikes opposed were official as they were agreed by the union.
History of fire brigade strike
In 1977 30,000 workers were involved in that strike which lasted for nine weeks.
People were encouraged to keep buckets of sand and water at home and fire brigades issued safety guides to cut the risk of fires.
A total of 10,000 Army, Navy and RAF personnel manned fleets of Green Goddesses on the streets to tackle emergencies.
The fire fighters finally agreed to settle for a 10% pay rise with guarantees of future increases and they went back to work on 16 January.
The FBU did not want the government intervention however this was inevitable. Ideally the talks should have been between the FBU and the local authority employers.
The general secretary of the Fire Brigades Union (FBU), Andy Gilchrist, blamed government intervention for blocking an offer to suspend the industrial action. The union has their deepest regret of the strikes but felt they had no choice and saddened it had to come to this.
Going on strike is very dangerous, stepping into the unknown for the union was a desperate gamble, dangerous conflict with the government was inevitable however they felt they were left with no other option, they thought the threat of strike would be enough to produce a deal suitable for its members.
Factors influencing industrial action
Public support for the union will strengthen the position they currently hold. Many of us in the public feel sorry for the workers that they deserve a fair pay, especially those who work for the public sector. After a short space of time the public opinion changed. However once they saw the effect in was having to society (safety issues) these views were changing. Yes most agreed that a fair pay should be given however maybe asking for such a large amount of 40% was asking for to much. .
Below is an abstract of the opinion of a member of the public
“…This strike is not something that any of the Fire Personnel on my husbands watch have taken lightly, they have spent many agonizing hours discussing ways to avoid strike action, but their employers did not value them enough to take them seriously, and I know that these feelings are mirrored throughout the UK's Firefighters.”
Source:www.supportyourfirefighters.co.uk
The government is now gaining a larger support from the public.
Health unions in the past have refused to go on strike because of the effect it will have on the public. There mission to is to save the lives of people.
It is worth noting that not so long ago it was the nurses who were fighting for a fair pay, the same offer was placed on the table of with the condition of if they agreed to modernization they will receive their pay increase. It was seen that the government were flexible with that particular dispute and are trying to follow hat same pattern with this one. The public feel the government is doing its best however the union does not see this.
Source: www.politice.guardian.co.uk
With the threat of war it seems both parties will be both under immense pressure. The army who is covering the fire fighters will if called upon will have to go to war where does that leave the fire service?
Effects of industrial action
Suggestions of gaining employee co- operations
Managing employees is the hardest and complex activities. There are peoples who physical and mental need must be met. They physical needs include wages, sick pay, pensions and trade union recognitions. Mental need include good working relationships, the acknowledgement of what’s gong on in the company and self esteem. In order for the fire fighters to perform that job duties there need to be 100% commitment from the employees. At the moment this is not present, they feel unimportant because they are not getting their way. This in turn results in demontivation which is the key aspect of their job. Demotivation can cause lack of effort and lack of commitment.
Abraham Maslow in 1954 came up with a theory regarding our needs called the “hierarchy of needs”. He discovered that here are 5 essential human needs. He argued that at the bottom were the five basic needs which is survival. The fire fighters were not receiving this. Many needed to gat second jobs in order for then to survive. It is important that each level is completely satisfied. Since the fire fighters could not complete the firs they are unable to travel up the scale therefore not being able to cater for all their needs.
Recommendation
The recommendation to resolve this dispute is to continue with talks through the ACAS as this achieved the best results (conciliation of the proposed 8 day strike).
Instead of the government trying to destroy their public support, they should try to invite the FBU to a meeting where the entire situation can be argued, discussed, debated and solved..
Conclusion
To conclude my report I can say that the negotiations and consultation methods are not fully working. The Bain report has added much to this problem. The government strongly agree with it however it is strongly opposed by the union.. To much time was spent on the government part discussing what they will not do instead of what they will do.
Bibliography
Lecture notes from week 1 - 10
Book list
- Industrial relations: theory and practice, third edition, published by Prentice Hall in 1998
- Employment Resourcing by Marjorie Corbridge and Stephan Pilbeam, published by Prentice Hall in 1998
- Business studies by Dave Hall, Rob Jones and Carlo Raffo, second edition, published by Causeway Press Ltd in 1999
- Dictionary of business, by Christopher Pass, Bryan Lowes, Andrew Pendleton and Leslie Chadwick, second edition, published by Collins in 1995
Websites
www. 30kfirepay.co.uk
– this website and the above were used to find out about the dispute
– I used this site to find out what the Fire Brigade union does
- I used this website to find out what the ACAS does
Newspapers
Metro
Guardian
The times