ILPC 2027

This paper explores the tensions between identity-based self-organisation and the class-based solidaristic traditions within the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) as they may be played out in local actions to resist the imposition of new shift patterns that threaten to derail the work-life balance of the union’s members. It explores the interaction of class and gender in the lives of female (largely emergency control staff) and male (largely firefighters) workers.

The FBU has been in the forefront of advancing equality for its minority members through the principle and practice of identity-based self-organisation in the union. During the 1990s and 2000s, the FBU established equality sections for women, Black and ethnic minority members and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender members, with seats on the union’s Executive Council, as well as changes to its rules on representation of members accused of harassment or bullying. This paper charts the development of these equality measures, including the tensions that they engendered and the move away from some aspects of minority representation in 2012.

Since the 1990s the fire service has been subject to major programmes of ‘modernisation’, played out in the 2002-03 pay dispute, during which the Bain report called for ‘modernisation and flexibility’ (Bain, et al. 2002), which paved the way for widespread changes to shift arrangements. Improvements in equality and diversity have been associated with calls for modernisation by the government, however, the FBU has contested this link, arguing that many of the proposed changesto shift patterns would make it harder for workers to achieve a satisfactory work-life balance. This paper explores the effects of modernisation on changes to shift patterns, localisation of negotiations and centralisation of control rooms, focussing upon resistance by the union, including local actions, such as in London, Essex and Merseyside. These represent disputes over the substantive issue of work-life balance and, in the case of Essex, strike action led by women and supported by male workers.  There are few contemporary accounts of the inter-relationship of gender and union or class in industrial action, a surprising omission considering current preoccupation with identity and intersectional identities. One exception is Pearson et al.’s account of Asian women’s leadership at Grunwick 1976-78 and Gate Gourmet in 2005. The latter explore how gender, ethnicity and class intersected ‘to catalyse industrial action in each of these two workplaces’ (2010, 409). They focus on the labour process and how technical and managerial changes to production processes were ‘internalised by women workers’, inlayed by existing experience and subjectivities leading to withdrawal of labour (2010, 412). Resistance came from experience of the labour process, but intersected with class, ethnic and gender identities, which informed notions of dignity and justice.

In exploring the intersection of gender and class, this paper draws on interviews with around 60 FBU key officials and activists, past and present, throughout the union structures, including the equality sections. It will present first-hand insights into the FBU role in driving forward equality measures in the fire service and the union, as well as internal resistance to changes within the union, but focus upon how these are operationalised through opposition to government demands for change that members believe worsen working conditions and undermine efforts to advance equality and diversity.