FBU Office 99 Vauxhall Road Birmingham B7 4HW Tel: 0121 380 6938 6192/6194

1. FBU Office99 Vauxhall RoadBirminghamB7 4HWTel: 0121 380 69386192/6194 The FBU Brigade Committee for the West Midlands Fire Service, would like to offer congratulations to the members, and non-members, who supported the National Strike on Wednesday 25th September.  Firefighters from Blue watch, Orange watch, 9DF, FDS and some detached from their normal watch were supported by their off duty colleagues at meetings and on picket lines across the West Midlands. It was a fantastic display of strength and shows that there are still many people prepared to stand up for what they believe in. Those who had the bravery to walk out on September 25th will be disappointed at the conscious decision made by a tiny minority who accepted overtime payments to provide cover during the strike period. Theirs was a choice which actively undermines everything those who supported Wednesday's stoppage are striving to achieve on everybody's behalf - Fair, Affordable, Sustainable and Attainable Pensions.   Similar disappointment must be expressed at those of our members who chose to work through Wednesday's stoppage. The objects of our union include "to secure unity of action in order to improve the position and status of members and the service." The democratic result of our recent ballot for industrial action - 78% in favour - combined with our high membership levels must surely give us strength in this dispute if we stand united. Showing resolve now will improve our chance of success. Together we are stronger. Message of Support received from FBU Members in Fire Control: To all Operational FBU members taking part in industrial action today. West Midlands Control Branch would like to offer our full support and good luck wishes in your fight. We may not be part of any picket lines this time round but we are with you fully in this fight to protect your pensions and members of the public. Stay strong and united. Yours in unity West Midlands Control FBU Members. October 2013

2. Welcome New Members In the past few weeks we have seen in excess of 50 members rejoin the FBU and our pension campaign. Welcome back to our struggle. We are stronger with you back on board. Some of the reasons given not to strike…“I don’t want to lose pay.”Join the club! None of us wanted to be here and face losing money. However, by standing together in this and sacrificing a little pay we all stand to benefit from any improvements we make to our current and future pensions. To those people who think that unions are an irrelevance, dinosaurs, old hat even, by believing that, you’re falling hook, line and sinker for what gets trotted out in the press everyday. It’s exactly what employers and Governments like this one, would love to be true. Why else do they spend so much time undermining or seeking to play down what unions do? Here’s the reality - How else can hard working people improve pay, pensions, terms and conditions etc, or defend what has been won through others hard struggle and determination? What British workers need is a bit more of the French Farmers’ direct approach. A trailer load of dung on the steps of DCLG might work wonders. Anybody got a tractor? “We’re not going to achieve anything. They’re not going to offer us any more.” By waging a principled, evidence led campaign on pensions we have already achieved some improvements to what was initially contained in the Heads of Agreement (HOA) for the 2015 replacement pension scheme. By doing nothing it sends the message that you’re happy to accept the HOA in it’s current form. www.westmidsfbu.co.uk Follow us on Twitter @westmidsfbu Executive Council Member for Region 7 – Rose Jones 07827300035 rose.jones@fbu.org.uk

3. “I’ll be recognised and rewarded if I don’t support it.” Take a look around you in the outside world of work. What do you see? Zero hour contracts, pay freezes, pay cuts, lay offs and redundancies. If anybody thinks that by meekly allowing what the Fire Minister and the Government are proposing we will be rewarded in some other way then you’re deluding yourself. An ‘every person for themselves’ attitude is to undermine what unions are all about - collective bargaining and strength in numbers, all achieved when we stand together. Or does it mean “you can forget the principles of union membership - I see a chance of promotion.”? Why would any employer or the Government reward any worker not prepared to stand up and demand something? They would simply take whatever they can and push it to the limit. Nothing will be given unless it is demanded. “If I strike it’ll harm my career prospects, my card will be marked.” That would be illegal and it’s why we stand together. Ask yourself, would any of you mark somebody’s card for taking part in this dispute? We hope you would answer no, but if people succumb to that pressure then it just perpetuates the myth and makes it more, not less, likely to happen. Supporting this industrial action shows that we are prepared to stand up for our beliefs, for what we believe is right. We are prepared to stand up against the threat of bullying and intimidation and the prospect that our card might be marked. That we’re prepared to support our colleagues. That’s what our union membership is all about. We stand together because together we’re stronger. "I want to support the strike but I'm in my last 12 months service. Striking will have a massive detrimental effect on my pension." To anyone in this position please contact Paul Cockburn. He is in possession of specific DCLG guidance on exactly this matter. It clearly illustrates that the effects of striking are tiny in comparison with some of the shocking figures being circulated. Most of these are pure guesswork. Get the facts. Moving house? If your personal details change such as home address, marital status etc then you must inform the FBU. For this and any other membership questions, please contact: Pardeep Raw Wolverhampton Fire Safety pardeep.raw@fbu.org.uk

4. Contacts Brigade Secretary Paul Cockburn 07793 269512 paul.cockburn@fbu.org.uk Brigade Vice-Chair Steve Price-Hunt 07515 060319 steven.price-hunt@wmfs.net Brigade Membership Secretary/Organiser Pardeep Raw 07584 608119 pardeep.raw@fbu.org.uk Brigade Women’s Rep Leanne Byrne 07590 837438 leanne.byrne@wmfs.net Brigade Officers Rep Neil Johnson neil.johnson@wmfs.net neil.johnson@fbu.org.uk Brigade BEAM Rep Rod Barrett 07795 038792 rodclif.barrett@wmfs.net Brigade Fire Control Reps Sasha Hitchins – 07976 367050 Jayne Mason – 07880 335563 sasha.farley@wmfs.net jayne.mason@wmfs.net Regional Secretary Andy Dennis 07827 300036 Andy.dennis@fbu.org.uk The Future of the Fire Service We all benefit from Pensions and Terms & Conditions of employment that FF’s who went before us, who fought hard to achieve. Thinking now of the future. Some of us may have children that aspire to a career in the Fire Service. Some may already have children working in the job. What kind of Fire Service do we want to leave behind for them? Do we want to leave Fair, Affordable, Sustainable and Attainable pensions? Or do we leave a job behind where it’s every person for themselves? Selfishness is the rule not the exception? I’m alright Jack? TRAC’s The FBU have recently been consulted on forthcoming changes to TRAC’s. We believe that with a reduced operational fleet, it is correct to reduce the number of available TRAC’s slots accordingly. We also believe that it is right to be more restrictive in permitted reasons to book TRAC’s slots in the first place. The immediate operational readiness of the maximum numbers of a diminishing fleet contributes greatly to public and firefighter safety and we state our firm commitment to that. It must be high amongst our priorities. Ridership and crewing levels We have been involved in consultation and discussions recently on ridership and crewing levels. We are unable to comment on the specifics at this time but hope that the near future will see some very positive and welcome developments.

5. Fire Control Update Fire Control are coming to the end of their three month trial on the shift pattern of 2-2-3. Following positive feedback it is not envisaged that a further change will be trialled at this stage. The interim Solution for the Shared Fire Control Project with Staffordshire has finally gone live, only 5 months behind schedule! This interim solution is for Staffordshire’s Fire Control to switch over to the Vision mobilising system. The full solution is for the Shared Control to mobilise both West Midlands and Staffordshire appliances and Officers from the current West Midlands Control and is due to take place in April 2014. Work is ongoing in the Consultation process with the FBU and other Rep Bodies over the staffing model and set up on the Shared Control. Control staff in West Midlands are working through learning the Staffordshire stations and callsigns, to be followed by their procedures and mobilising information in the coming months. Its not anticipated that the 5 month delay in getting the Vision system into Staffordshire will have an impact on the final solution being ready for April next year, although there is a certain feeling of being here before… The current Control facilities are being looked at in order to accommodate staff from Staffordshire. Wednesday 25th September was a difficult day in Fire Control. With Control Staff being exempt from the ballot, we were unable to support the Firefighters action. There were many FBU members in Control that day, including both FC Branch Reps, that wholeheartedly supported the action. Should further action be necessary, we will be attending pickets lines to show that support. Control FBU members will also be attending the Rally in London on the 16th October to stand side by side in the campaign.

6. Some pictures from the picket lines… Rest Facilities Members will have seen the recent announcement on the use of alternative resting facilities. The FBU welcomes that WMFS have moved some way to restoring rest facilities. Whilst we are disappointed that WMFS chose not to pay additional costs incurred, we do accept that to have 4 broad categories of resting facility, rather than specific types, means that the majority of resting arrangements made by firefighters may alreadyfall within one of them. An end to the uncertainty surrounding the use of any other facilities than the Nimrods and the fear of middle of the night raids is long- 8 years- overdue. Also a step forward is the provision of storage facilities for members’ chosen rest facility. We hope that you find this newsletter of benefit. If there is anything that you wish to see in future editions then please let us know.