Under the Drury/Johnsen leadership, we have suffered the following over the last 3-6 years:
- A failure to deliver, and repeated deferral of promised pay rises;
- Accepting the smallest pay rise (0.3%) in our Union’s history;
- A reduction in democracy – less general meetings and less sub-branch meetings;
- Less transparency in voting results and a failure to deliver e-voting as promised;
- Proposed awards not clearly defined and tracked for members to compare;
- Selling off firefighter conditions for massive pay rises to a few;
- A failure to enforce Award conditions, eg 28 day LF/LSO agreements;
- Spending a record (approx) $1.1 million of our money in 3rd party election donations;
- Public finance scandals including the largest turnover of industrial staff in our history;
- Long, mistake ridden SITREPs and CODE REDs that have lost meaning and value;
- Allowing the largest membership loss (6400 to 5800 in 4 years), more than ever before;
- Excessive use of lawyers, the most ever spent by the FBEU;
- Promises of shorter, clearer Awards but instead delivered longer, more complex Awards;
- Failure to observe the Union’s Registered Rules on Plebiscites;
- Failure to observe the Union’s Registered Rules on Dues;
- Massive increases in spending Union finances on legal fees and staff payouts;
- Mismanaging the Union office rental strategy, losing income whilst spending more;
- Awards constantly late by many months – it’s weak and costs members money;
- A promise to not trade off conditions, but instead traded off conditions;
“IT WAS OVERWHELMINGLY CLEAR THAT AS A COLLECTIVE, YOU WERE NOT WILLING TO COP REDUCTIONS IN PAY AND CONDITIONS OR MAKE ANY TRADE-OFFS. ENTERING NEGOTIATIONS, THIS FORMED THE FUNDAMENTAL BASIS OF OUR POSITION WHICH WE WOULD NOT COMPROMISE ON.” – LEIGHTON DRURY (2021). HIS NEXT AWARD TRADED AWAY MILLIONS OF DOLLARS WORTH OF OUR CONDITIONS.
Wilmott-Casey 24 