British firefighters to strike

[guerrillaradio]

There's gonna be a series of strikes by firefighters cos of low pay. They demanded a 40% pay increase, and the government offered 4% instead. Many claim that this strike is unjustified though, as there is a government review body due to publish a report on it in December.

Opinions people??

[Conghaileach]

The firefighters will earn £30,000 a year if they get this 40% pay raise. I'm not sure how this compares to other important jobs like the other emergency services and teaching, but in principle I support their cause for better pay.

Apparently the army's Green Godesses are all ready to be employed. I can see some Nationalists over here purposefully starting fires just to get a chance to stone them.

[Conghaileach]

Apparently there's another fire fighters union (mainly reservists, if I recall correctly) which will have its vote in a few days. I think this union is generally opposed to the strike.

[guerrillaradio]

Quote: from CiaranB on 5:47 pm on Oct. 19, 2002
I'm not sure how this compares to other important jobs like the other emergency services and teaching, but in principle I support their cause for better pay.

That pretty much sums up my thinking. Someone said to me that firefighting is one of the jobs where your duty supercedes your pay. I agree to an extent, in that firefighting is an essential part of any society, but I think industrial action is an integral part of any employment.

[Jaha]

heck, dont pay them anything. when they all quit and there are no new firefighters, society will come crawling back....

we need firefighters, anyone who disagrees, can piss-out the next fire they come across....

[guerrillaradio]

It looks quite likely now that the strikes will spread to other industries, as workers are legally entitled to refuse work if they aren't guarunteed professional fire cover. We could be heading for another Winter of Discontent...

[Sovietsky Souyuz]

Perhaps if the government pulled the finger out and helped this country (UK) instead of giving gay rights groups, prostitutes, and pro-immigration groups all of the lottery and other money, the firefighters wouldn't need to strike, because the'd have the pay they wanted, as would all public sector workers.

[BOZG]

Perhaps if the government pulled the finger out and helped this country (UK) instead of giving gay rights groups, prostitutes, and pro-immigration groups all of the lottery and other money, the firefighters wouldn't need to strike, because the'd have the pay they wanted, as would all public sector workers

It is that type of mentality, the leftist movements need less of. No single cause is greater than any others. By undermining other causes, you undermine socialist values of helping all those who live in inequality or exploitation. I agree that the firefighters should be given a raise as they are a valuabe group in society but there cause should not be given any superiority over any other struggle.

[Conghaileach]

The Brit government is arguing that if they bow to the firefighters, then they'll also have to give raises to other emergency services (ambulance workers especially, and even more so over here considering the attacks against them), which they claim the can't afford.

Of course, they don't seem to have any problem with their warmongering plans to spend billions attacking Iraq.

[Kez]

Solidarity with the FIREFIGHTERS!!!

in comparison i think a nurses gets more than a firfighter which is a fuvkin joke

If im risking my fuckin life for some fat ****, id hope that my pay is good enough so my kids could have a better life.

What can we do to support our comrades?
Where can one get leaflets?

theres gonna be an 8 day strike on the 6th november, and another one this coming tusday.
ALL POWER TO THE SOVIETS!!!

if we have more and more strikes, then the revolution comes closer as the workforce mobilizes, help mobilise the working class comrades!

[guerrillaradio]

Kamo - when did you become so inarticulate??

Well the government has bowed. Negotiations are due to start. I'm declaring a tentative victory to the workers. :)

[Baltic]

In the Soviet state all workers basically got paid the same.

Doctors or shop workers............

It was a privilege to pay back to society what was taught to you.

The Fire Fighters new what hey were doing when they joined?

Their pay is already good.

They are playing off the back of 9/11

Baltic

[RGacky3]

Good for them, I think workers have every right to strike. In my opinion 90% of workers are not payed what they are worth.

[Son of Scargill]

SUPPORT YOUR FIREFIGHTERS!
SUPPORT THE F.B.U.!


National Pay Campaign 2002

From Andy Gilchrist, FBU General Secretary

At last year’s FBU annual conference and throughout the last two or three years it has become evident that members are feeling it is time to revisit our Fire Service Pay Formula. This formula was won after a nine-week long strike over a cold winter in 1977. This was the first time – and to date remains – the only time that there has been a national strike in the UK fire service. We want to keep it this way.

Over the last 20 years this formula has served us very well. Real wages for firefighters and fire control operators have improved steadily in line with those of skilled manual workers in the private sector. This redressed the imbalance prior to 1977 when we were amongst the lowest paid workers. In recent years however occupational change in the workplace and the labour market has accelerated dramatically and also firefighters and fire control operator’s responsibilities have broadened considerably. In the fire service more emphasis is now placed on fire prevention and community liaison. The demands of the job have become increasingly technical and complex both in front line fire fighting and in fire control rooms.

In short the old formula based on comparisons with industrial manual workers no longer fits the bill. Also the issue of the current level of pay needs addressing.

We believe that all sides in the fire service recognize the value of having a pay formula. Nevertheless if we are to recruit and retain quality staff particularly in periods of relatively full employment in many parts of Britain then the formula must reflect modern realities. I was pleased to see that the CACFOA president Richard Bull, writing in the December issue of Fire magazine, also supports reviewing the formula. He acknowledges that:

“The weekly pay levels of a firefighter today certainly do not bear comparison with those of a police constable (without overtime) or, indeed, other skilled workers”

He continues: “… as we move even more into the agenda of community safety as our primary focus, we will expect our firefighters to be adaptable and flexible, whilst also possessing high levels of interpersonal skills as well as continuing to react to fire and other emergencies.”

For more info on the situation:-http://www.fbu.org.uk

[Son of Scargill]

http://www.fbu.org.uk

[Conghaileach]

Weekly Worker 453 - Towards a Socialist Alliance
Party!

In this week's Weekly Worker, paper of the Communist
Party of Great Britain;


Support the Firefighters

No one should doubt the political importance of the
firefighters’ dispute. This is not a straightforward
clash between employees and employers. Rather it is a
struggle between the government and a strategically
well placed section of the working class which has the
backing of the broad labour movement.

This has been fully recognised by the Socialist
Alliance. In a unanimously passed resolution the SA’s
executive committee resolves to mobilise in support of
the firefighters: “We recognise,” reads the
resolution, “this dispute as one of the most
significant in many years - a potential ‘public
service miners’ strike’.”

The comparison is valid. The firefighters dispute has
the potential to challenge the government and trigger
wider industrial and political action. There certainly
exists a popular mood of anger against the Blair
government within the trade unions and the class.

In other respects, however, the Fire Brigades Union’s
dispute is very different from the miners’ 1984-85
Great Strike. Firstly, it is an offensive, rather than
a defensive, action. From the viewpoint of capital
such a strike, if it were successful, would unleash a
deluge. Countless others would follow, No wonder Blair
says the 40% claim is “wrong and dangerous”.

Secondly, the FBU’s campaign begins with a high degree
of unity. The miners were severely handicapped from
the first day of their mammoth strike by a serious
split, which eventually led to the formation of a
breakaway scab union. The 87.6% majority in favour of
the 36 days of discontinuous strike action, which
begins on Tuesday October 29, is an impressive
indicator of the firefighters’ unity and resolve.
Moreover, the first skirmish in the war of morale
ended with a decisive victory for the union side.

Media news editors trumpeted the supposed potential of
a ‘Democratic Union of Mineworkers’ in the shape of
the Retained Firefighters Union. Yet, though the RFU’s
executive condemned the strike decision, there is also
a pledge not to cross picket lines. More importantly
the RFU has less than 1,000 members, mainly in rural
areas. In contrast the FBU’s 16,000 part-time
firefighters voted in the strike ballot and
overwhelmingly supported both the action and the claim
(which includes a demand for full pay parity of
retained and full-time personnel).

Furthermore, other unions are skilfully finding legal
loopholes in order to deliver secondary - ie,
solidarity - action and pursue their own objectives.
Both the RMT and Aslef have made calls for the closure
of deep tube stations in London which are only served
by lifts. The GMB has raised concerns about its
members working in the chemical and nuclear
industries. Those who say it is not safe without
professional fire cover are to be supported if they
walk away from their jobs. The same message has come
from Derek Simpson, joint general secretary of Amicus.
Despite the draconian anti-trade unions laws there
exists a certain room for manoeuvre under health and
safety legislation to bring out millions of other
workers on the FBU’s strike days. This must be
encouraged.

In one other respect the FBU seems well placed.
Meeting on October 22, the TUC has given ‘full
backing’. Yet let us not forget the record of the TUC
- passing fine resolutions one day and then the next
day seeking a rotten deal in the interests of class
peace. As all militant miners and those active in the
miners’ support groups will remember, the TUC in
1984-85 was absolutely treacherous. In the face of an
all-out assault directed by Margaret Thatcher and her
government the TUC delivered plenty of speeches but
only a drip-feed of solidarity. Norman Willis and the
majority of the TUC had no liking for Arthur Scargill
and positively feared a miners’ victory.

Today’s TUC is no different. If anything, in fact, it
is worse. Eighteen years of being treated with
contempt by the Tory government still rankles. The TUC
has no wish to see a return of the Conservatives and
the instincts of the trade union bureaucracy
inevitably lead it towards fixing some kind of deal.
In other words, the TUC is quite capable of stabbing
the firefighters in the back.

That goes not only for the right. It is true for the
left too. Bob Crow, Mick Rix, Alan Simpson and co
might be talking tough today. But what about tomorrow?
That is why we say the rank and file should only trust
their leaders to the extent that they fight
wholeheartedly in the interests of the working class
as a whole.

Meantime what is needed in each union and each
industry is the independent organisation of the
militant minority. That includes the FBU. General
secretary Andy Gilchrist cannot be allowed to
compromise away the 40% pay claim and the £30,000
minimum. We can only ensure that by organising a rank
and file movement.

The strike must not be left to the executive. There
must be strike committees elected at each fire station
for the duration. They should take on the
responsibility for explaining the firefighters’ case
to other trade unionists and the general public
locally. Speakers must be sent out to encourage the
organisation of solidarity action. Firefighters’
support groups would be an excellent idea to serve as
an auxiliary force and could be ‘twinned’ with fire
stations.

The government is rattled. Local government minister
Nick Raynsford summoned Andy Gilchrist to see him on
Monday and sprang an ambush using a TUC ‘code of
conduct’. This had been agreed in 1979, following the
widespread public services strikes during the famous
‘winter of discontent’.

Paragraph six of this code states: “Generally unions
already recognise the need to provide emergency or
essential services and to maintain plant and equipment
during industrial disputes, and the TUC considers that
such action is vitally necessary.” The code had been
cooked up by the TUC and James Callaghan’s Labour
government, which was under attack by the Tories.

Naturally most union leaders had forgotten it existed
and now consider it an irrelevance. But it remains a
remote possibility that in the course of the
fightfighters’ dispute or its aftermath Blair might
contemplate legislation which ban strikes in emergency
services. The war with Iraq could certainly provide an
ideal excuse. Public opinion would be whipped up into
chauvinistic hysteria and strikes under such
circumstances could be branded as ‘unpatriotic’ and
playing into the hands of ‘the enemy’.

That is why politics are vital. In their own interests
firefighters have to oppose the war. No to US-UK
imperialism. No to the Saddam Hussein regime in
Baghdad. The main enemy is at home.

Part and parcel of that recognition must be an end to
the FBU’s automatic support for the Labour Party in
elections. The union’s funds must be democratised.
Firefighters should have the right to support those,
such as the Socialist Alliance, who actually back them
in their fight and campaign for the repeal of all
anti-trade union laws. Everyone know what side the
Labour Party and the Labour government are on. They
are on the side of the employers and the capitalist
system of exploitation.

Workers need their own party, a party that fights for
socialism. The Socialist Alliance represents a step in
that direction.

Derek Hunter

[guerrillaradio]

I'm shocked. Britain's currently captivated by industrial action, and noone's posting on it. Come on people, where are the British lefties??

[Moskitto]

My mum's a teacher and she gets paid about £19,000

come on, the government must realise the firefighters need more pay, even our local conservative MP supports the firefighters strike.

[Zippy]

Quote: from Baltic on 9:08 pm on Oct. 25, 2002
In the Soviet state all workers basically got paid the same.
Good example. The Soviet State was fair and tolerant wasn't it?

I support the FBU all the way, no doubt in my mind that they deserve more money.
Their website is http://www.fbu.org.uk/ - very interesting it is aswell.

Zippy.