Not Scargillite, perhaps, but almost as counter-productive
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Your support makes all the difference.The firefighters return to work this morning to find their claim for a pay rise in ruins. If the Prime Minister did accuse their union leaders of Scargillism, however, he was wrong. The point about Arthur Scargill is that he took the miners out on strike without a ballot. The firefighters were balloted, and 87 per cent of them voted for the strike. But they have been almost as badly led as the miners. The quality of leadership in modern trade unionism is not merely about the winning of ballots, it is about educating members in which disputes are winnable.
Andy Gilchrist, the leader of the Fire Brigades Union, should have known an opening bid for a 40 per cent pay rise, pursued by means of not just a two-day but then eight-day stoppages, risked shining an unforgiving light on some of his members' working practices.
Mr Gilchrist knew, when the rest of us did not, that each vacancy for a full-time firefighter attracts nearly 40 applicants, of whom nearly half are suitable. He knew that the union opposes joint control rooms with other emergency services, or the training of its members to act as paramedics.
On the other hand, the Government should not be smug. Its draft report on the eight-day strike speaks of the Army "easily coping", and of firefighters' working practices exposed as "clearly indefensible". The Army is undoubtedly doing a fine job with fewer resources, but no one should imagine that it is providing full coverage – or that it has been tested in the most serious incident. And public opinion, while it may find some of the fire brigades' working practices surprising, remains sympathetic to the firefighters. Rightly so – they are public-spirited, decent people, disastrously led astray by Mr Gilchrist.
But it should be clear by now that the union is not going to win this dispute. The NHS settlement showed that other public-sector workers are prepared to accept flexible working in return for higher pay. The trick over the next four days, before the next eight-day strike, is to find a way for the firefighters to back down with honour.
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