Submitted by SWFBU on
The South West Region of the FBU has received a premier campaigning award from the TUC for its campaign against a proposed "Regional Control Centre" in the South West. The Region was presented with "The Highly Commended Campaigning Award" at the South West TUC Union Rep Awards in Bristol in May this year.
The TUC Awards Panel selected the Region for the award following a nomination in the campaiging category within the South West Union Rep Awards. A large number of nominations were received, showing the panel many, many examples of what union reps are achieving for their members in the South West. Congratulations were given by the TUC to all the winners and to everyone else who was nominated for an award.
The awards cermony took place at Armada House, Bristol and Joanne Kaye, vice chair of the SW TUC presented the Highly Commended Campaigning Award to Simon Jones and Diana Wright who are both Emergency Fire Control Operaters and FBU Officials in the Region.
The Region was recognised for the high profile and committed part that it played in the Unions overall campaign against the RCC project. The South West had been chosen by Government to be one of the first areas to have an RCC and the Union opposed the plans from the outset. If implemented the project would have seen the closure of the 7 local Emergency Fire Control Centres in the Region leading to massive job losses among highly skilled operators throughout the South West, the majority of which were women. There would have been a subsequent loss of vital local knowlege and an inevitable delay in answering 999 calls from the public which the Union regarded as "both dangerous and foolhardy". The award recognises that the Region kept the campaign and the issues in the forefront of peoples minds during a 7 year period by the effective use of political pressure, media exposure and public campigning.
FBU South West Regional Secretary John Drake said "we are delighted and very proud to be recognised in this way by the TUC who helped us so much during the course of this lengthy and difficult campaign. Most of all this award recognises the vital role that all Trade Unions play in defending working people and fighting for their rights and jobs. We undertook this campaign and kept with it because it was in the interests of both our Members and the public alike and it is a tribute to the commitment and dedication of our Members in Emergency Fire Control Rooms across the South West that the support which our campaign gathered proved overwhelming."
Simon Jones, an Emergency Fire Control Member who accepted the award at the cermony said "This campaign is one of the biggest victories in the FBU`s history. In the time I was involved in the campaign I have been overwhelmed by the work that has gone on within the FBU both nationally and regionally. I would personally like to thank FBU Officials John Drake and Tam McFarlane for their unwavering dedication in the South West along with other comrades involved Nationally who have given their professional and specialist knowledge to help thwart the project."
