Fire Service industrial relations:an historical perspective

摘要

I worked for the local government employers from 1973 to 2004 and over that period negotiated with about 30 different trade unions and staff associations, getting to know about a hundred general secretaries and senior trade union officials in the process. Although most of my time was spent other than with the Fire Service, many of the most vivid experiences in my career were with the Fire NJC and I was the only person on the employers' side to have been centrally involved in the big national disputes of 1977/8 and 2002/3. Now four years after leaving the UK scene for a completely different style of industrial relations in Europe, I think it is possible for me to look back dispassionately over my time with the Fire NJC and before. I am no longer a spokesman for the Fire employers and so this article is in my own name and represents only my own views.