A SCOTTISH firefighters' leader who became embroiled in a row with the union's UK leadership has left his post after losing out in an election.
Scottish Fire Brigades Union (FBU) secretary John Duffy was defeated in a ballot yesterday by his rival Stephen Thomson, who will now take over as the organisation's new regional secretary.
Mr Duffy had previously drawn the ire of UK general secretary Matt Wrack after Scottish firefighters decided not to take part in a national strike against the UK Government's pension cuts.
The administration of pensions is devolved to Holyrood and the union's Scottish office had won concessions from the SNP Government and agreed to shelve its strike action.
It is understood Scotland's decision to avoid a strike angered the UK leader, who wanted a UK-wide stance.
He subsequently fired off a series of blistering emails to Scottish FBU executive council member Roddy Robertson
The messages, published by the Sunday Herald, contained attacks on Mr Duffy and criticisms of FBU Scotland's approach to the pensions dispute.
Mr Wrack wrote: "It is once again disappointing that you have acted on a pensions matter without even discussing it with me or with the national officer."
On Mr Duffy saying that Scottish union members could get "dragged into" an overtime ban, Mr Wrack wrote: "John seems to have forgotten that the Fire Brigades Union decided this campaign at a national conference and in two national ballots.
"Members in Scotland have not been 'dragged into' anything - they voted for industrial action."
He added: "I therefore must insist that no further comments are made to the press on the union's pension campaign without discussing it with us.
"If that means questions should be referred to Head Office - that would be preferable to the error which was made in these comments."
He also criticised the Scottish FBU leader for accepting an OBE, saying: "I have to say I find it a huge embarrassment that an official of this union took such an honour from the British establishment at a time when we are facing the worst cuts and attacks in history."
However, Mr Robertson replied: "The only one creating confusion in the membership in Scotland is you … I suggest that you take a step back as this is becoming tantamount to bullying and harassment."
He advised Mr Wrack to "get over" Mr Duffy's award.
The row appeared to have been swept under the carpet yesterday with the election of Mr Thomson, with neither party commenting on it directly.
The new secretary, a firefighter from Larbert who has worked for the fire service in Scotland for 20 years, won 80% of the vote to replace Mr Duffy.
He said: "It is a great honour to be elected to represent Scottish firefighters. I look forward to working with other union officials and would like to thank my colleagues for electing me to this position.
"We face many challenges and my priority is to defend our vital public services and those who work within it on behalf of our communities across Scotland."
Mr Wrack said: "I congratulate Stephen on his election and look forward to working with him.
"I would like to thank John Duffy for all the work he has done on behalf of the FBU and wish him well.
"The fire service is under attack in Scotland and elsewhere and our job is to protect it against cuts and job losses, which put the safety of firefighters and of the public at risk."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article