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The 'Fire Brigades Union' ('FBU') is the main union for firefighters in the United Kingdom. It was founded in 1918 in the London area as the ''Firemans Trade Union'', but soon grew to cover the entire country. During the Second World War, it began to unionise auxiliaries for the first time. Today, it has around 50,000 members.
Led by its then General Secretary Andy Gilchrist, the union called a strike over pay and conditions in 2002. The strike was seen as a failure and Gilchrist was criticised for giving in to government pressure, which led to rank-and-file anger at the union's line. An expression of this anger was seen on May 5 2005 when leftwinger Matt Wrack beat the incumbent General Secretary, Gilchrist, attaining 63.9% of the vote (12,883 votes). The FBU subsequently disaffiliated from the Labour Party
Their headquarters is situated in Norbiton, Kingston upon Thames.

Contents

General Secretaries

See also

External links

General Secretaries

★ 1939: John Horner

★ 1964: Terence Parry

★ 1980: Ken Cameron

★ 2000: Andy Gilchrist

★ 2005: Matt Wrack

See also

★ UK Firefighter dispute 2002/2003

External links

★ FBU homepage

★ UK Fire News

★ UK Fire News