GLASGOW’S firemen had had enough. Unhappy (to put it mildly) with a new wages offer, they marched from Blythswood Square to the City Chambers on November 16, 1961, to draw attention to their view.

The proposed deal would have given them a maximum of £825 a year after 15 years’ service. The planned maximum wage in London at that time was £912 a year, and £885 in the Metropolitan area.

The Fire Brigade Union wanted a wage structure rising from £912 to £950 over eight years.

At the chambers a delegation led by Enoch Humphries, the union’s executive council member for Scotland, met key councillors.

Speaking to reporters outside afterwards, Mr Humphries drew attention to the men’s resentment and dismay at the offer, and emphasised the disparity in wages that would arise should it be accepted.

“A fireman starting in Glasgow,” he said, “would get an increase of 9s 7d a week, but the same man, if he started in London, would get an increase of £3 12s 6d.

“After eight years’ service the London fireman would have £912 a year, and his Glasgow counterpart £800. The Glasgow fireman would have to serve another seven years before being advanced to £825, making a final gap in the wages of the two men about 33s a week”.

He said the councillors had undertaken to convey the FBU’s views to their representative on the National Joint Council for Local Authority Fire Brigades when negotiations were resumed in London the following week.

The march came as the TUC was urging the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Selwyn Lloyd, to end a nationwide pay pause as part of corrective action to address what it described as Britain’s unsatisfactory economic position.

The TUC said that in the first eight months of the year, hourly wage rates had risen by about two per cent, compared with a three per cent rise in productivity.