Fire Brigades Union

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**FBU**

Fire Brigades Union
Founded	1918
Members	50,000
Country	United Kingdom
Affiliation	TUC STUC
Key people	Matt Wrack, general secretary
Office location	Norbiton, Kingston upon Thames
Website	www.fbu.org.uk

The Fire Brigades Union (FBU) is the main union for firefighters in the United Kingdom. It was founded in 1918 in the London area as the Firemans Trade Union, but soon grew to cover the entire country. During the Second World War, it began to unionise auxiliaries for the first time. Today, it has around 50,000 members.

Led by its then General Secretary Andy Gilchrist, the union called a strike over pay and conditions in 2002. The strike was seen as a failure and Gilchrist was criticised for giving in to government pressure, which led to rank-and-file anger at the union's line. An expression of this anger was seen on May 5, 2005 when leftwinger Matt Wrack beat the incumbent General Secretary, Gilchrist, attaining 63.9% of the vote (12,883 votes). The FBU subsequently disaffiliated from the Labour Party

Their headquarters is situated in Norbiton, Kingston upon Thames.