UFUQ name change approved – We are now QPFU
I am pleased to announce that after overwhelming support for changing your union’s name, the Queensland Industrial Relations Commission (QIRC) today approved the change from the United Firefighters’ Union of Australia, Union of Employees, Queensland (the UFUQ) to the Queensland Professional Firefighters’ Union, Industrial Union of Employees (the QPFU).
I advised members of the progression to a name change in an email to all members in May 2022. Your Executive and State Committee of Management (SCM) began the transition away from the UFUQ many years before that when we and the NSW union (FBEU) terminated our relationship with the UFUA.
Your Executive and SCM representatives also wanted to make a point about the wide (mis)use of the term ‘firefighter’ to describe a range of people who do a range of jobs that are nothing like the highly trained and highly skilled work you do. This means the use of the word ‘professional’ was strongly supported by the many responses we got when we asked members about these matters in 2022.
The name change is now official, and this means your new diaries and helmet stickers are now finally on their way to you (these were delayed due to the wait for the QIRC to approve the new name).
Of course, the QPFU continues to proudly provide industrial coverage and industrial representation to all current members. For all members and prospective members, nothing is changing but for the name and the logo, and official colours of the new QPFU.
Finally, this is possibly the last Code 2 to be published under the UFUQ banner, and as you can expect, many internal administrative changes are occurring (bank accounts, stationary and much more). As part of that, as soon as possible, an entirely new QPFU website will go live, and I will send a Code 2 under the new logo and colours advising you of this.
Authorised by John Oliver General Secretary Queensland Professional Firefighters’ Union, Industrial Union of Employees
