Unions agree to pursue global alliance

An historic meeting of firefighter unions was held in Hawaii over three days of 25-27 July. UFU National Secretary, Peter Marshall, said that the meeting of the four key firefighter unions, including the IAFF with 270,000 members in the US and Canada, was an exciting development.  "Employers regularly talk to each other internationally.  Only next week in Melbourne the Australiasian Fire Authorities Council and the Association of Asian Fire Chiefs are holding their annual conference.  So it is time that firefighter unions started to formally exchange information and strategies around the many common issues that we share.  The drive to get firefighters and other emergency service workers to do more tasks with less rsources is not confined to Australia. So it is crucial that we start to meet and talk more regularly if we are going to be effctive in meeting the challenges of cut backs and increasing workloads." 

The IAFF was represented by its General President Harold Schaitberger, Chief of Staff Michael Crouse and five vice presidents.  The UFUA was represented by National Secretary Peter Marshall, National President Ron Hanna, Queensland Secretary Mark Walker and National Executive Officer, Leigh Hubbard.  The FBU was repesented by Assistant General Secretary Andy Dark and New Zealand by Secretary, Derek Best, ougoing President Mike McEnaney and incoming president Steve Warner.

Peter Marshall facilitating meeting	IAFF delegation with General President Harold Schaitberger on the right

The meeting statement commits the four unions to pursue a formal alliance.  The next steps will be to formulate a charter that will govern the new umbrella body.  While each union will maintain its independence it was agreed that an international network was essential to share information and undertake joint projects. 

Peter Marshall said after the meeting that the other unions had a lot to offer UFUA members.  "In the US and Canada the IAFF is very advanced in achieving national standards for resources and their political campaigns are incredible.  In the UK the FBU has faced enormous challenges since 2003, with national response standards being undermined, attacks on working conditions at local level and staffing according to local risk assessments rather than worst case scenarios.  We have a lot to learn from all the unions involved and this can only improve our capacity to meet our own challenges." 

Both the IAFF President and the FBU Secretary have been invited to the UFU National Committee of Management meeting in November.

To see the IAFF news story go to www.iaff.org 

For the meeting statement click here  

For the joint unions press statement click here