"It seems like we have been down this road before. I find it very hard to trust the Government and the employers
but I suppose we have to see what is on the table. I, however, don't believe that the Government want to find a reasonable settlement to this dispute...."
That is what Gary Thorogood, Group Secretary, Southern Command Group 4 (eight stations in south east London), told Solidarity after John Prescott promised open negotiations with the Fire Brigades Union and the union suspended strike action for the next few weeks.
Ross Neal, chair of London Region FBU, added:
"As we stand the process of negotiation, without pre-conditions, at ACAS will supposedly be wrapped up in 3-4 weeks. Prescott appears to have softened his attitude. He says nothing is ruled in or out. The three points of our four-point claim, which we had nearly reached agreement with the employers on, before the Government ruled them out of the discussion, are back on the agenda.
"Our Executive Council will be meeting every week and if we think the Government and employers are just stalling we will call more strikes immediately."
After the sticks, it's the carrot again. The Government said it would not even negotiate seriously on pay unless the FBU first signed up to the Bain report's measures to cut jobs, services and conditions. It said it would change the law to have firefighters' pay decided by Government decree - like teachers' - rather than by negotiation. It threatened to ban FBU strikes as soon as the Bush-Blair war on Iraq kicks off.
Then the carrot: the Government now says that it has agreed to an open agenda for negotiations with the union.
The FBU has its sticks, too, to beat the Government with, and it has used them recently with a solid relaunch of industrial action. Up to a point, carrots and sticks are what trade-unionism - bargaining for a better deal for workers within the capitalist system - is all about. If FBU members want to wait and see what comes from renewed negotiations, other trade unionists have no right to complain about it.
But if you play carrots and sticks, you have to have your own sticks strong, supple and ready to hand. It is vital that confidence, organisation and mobilisation among firefighters is not allowed to dribble away while they wait for news from the negotiations.
The setting up of a broad democratic strike committee in the FBU, involving new representatives elected by, reporting back to, and instantly recallable by brigades all across the country, would be the best way to make sure of a plan of campaign that is both realistic and forceful.
In the meantime, it is vital that other trade unionists do not our solidarity with the FBU dwindle, wane or wither. The Government says it will ban FBU strike action in the event of war because the army cannot cope with both setting Iraq afire and putting out fires in Britain at the same time. Good: we have an answer. Don't set Iraq afire. Stop the war!
